- Introduction
- Tenterden Folk Sessions
- Around Kent Folk magazine
- School workshops
- Occasional barn dances or ceilidhs
- Occasional concerts and special events
- Consultancy
- And more
Introduction
The annual four day Tenterden Folk Festival came to an end with a very successful event in October 2024. At that point the Trustees decided the festival was no longer viable in its current form with the longer term effects of the Covid pandemic, the financial crisis and the age and health of those involved in the organisation. So what does the future hold for Tenterden Folk Day Trust?
The Tenterden Folk Sessions
Tenterden Folk Club started in The Eight Bells in 1992 and, despite several changes in venue, it has been running consistently ever since. The current format is a free folk song and music session in a bar. With effect from 13th November 2024 the sessions have been relocate to the main ground floor bar at The Tenterden Club on the second Wednesday of the month. This move may also offer the opportunity to hold folk club events in the upstairs function room with special guest artists.
Around Kent Folk magazine
The Trust took over publishing AKF following the sad deaths of Bob and Kathy Drage in December 2017. Since then circulation has grown, more editorial, and colour have added so that now approximately 700 copies of AKF are printed every two months and distributed to folk clubs in Kent, Surrey and Sussex. The magazine is also available to read online. The Trust aims to continue to build on this success.
School workshop
The Trust has been involved with running educational workshops on folk song and dance in primary and secondary schools in Ashford and wider Kent for many years. The workshops involve professional folk musicians going into schools to work with the students and staff. They started as a small part of KCC’s Kent Festival. For the last few years we have been working with the special needs students at Wyvern School. These workshops have been temporarily suspended due to lack of funding. Both the Trust and the school are keen to restart them as soon as funding is available.
Occasional barn dances or ceilidhs
In 2024 the Trust ran two successful fundraising barn dances, as well as the festival barn dance, at the Old Dairy Tap Rooms. We hope to stage further barn dances or ceilidhs in the future.
Occasional concerts and special events
For over 30 years the Trust regularly promoted occasional special events during the year, often in co-operation or partnership with folk clubs, Councils or other local organisations. We worked with Ashford Borough Council, Kent County Council, Produced in Kent, The Kent County Show, Folk at the Drum, Revelation Ashford and others. The Trust is keen to continue to work with local organisations to promote folk music in Tenterden and Ashford.
Consultancy
The Trustees and our contacts have wide experience of organising folk events and can offer consultancy services and advice to other organisations to help to include folk song, music, dance and traditions in their programme of events.
Alan Castle, Margaret White and Richard Cartwright
Trustees of Tenterden Folk Day Trust / Tenterden Folk Festival