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News NEWS PAGE - this page is updated regularly so please keep checking back! 15 April 2013 - Josienne Clarke and Ben Walker played a cracking set at Bournemouth Folk Club last night. The audience were completely captivated; Josienne's dry with and beautiful singing coupled with Ben's simply fantasctic guitar playing was awesome. Can't wait for their set at Purbeck Folk Festival on the Sunday (25th). 10 April 2013 - Just booked! Gaz Brookfield has just been supporting The Levellers on tour and he's coming to join us on the Sunday of Purbeck. He'll be joined by Dorchester fiddle star, Benny Wain (who plays with Catherine Burke Band). Fantastic news! 10 March 2013 - LATEST BOOKING! MAMA ROSIN Swedish CAJUN Punk band Mama Rosin will be rockin it up on Friday night at Purbeck this year. This is going to be AWESOME!! 02 March 2013 - Bournemouth Folk Club will be giving us a taste of what's to come at Purbeck this year as The Urban Folk Quartet come to play on Sunday May 12th. If you like fast and furious fiddling with really drive and kick - make sure you come and watch them at Bournemouth Folk Club to get you in that Purbeck Folk Festival mood. 14 February 2013 - JUST BOOKED! Fantastic news... GADERENE will be joing us at Purbeck Folk Festival this year. They last played for us in 2010 and had a great time - they stayed and hung out with us for the whole weekend. 21 January 2013 - Another thank you went out last night to all of the people that made Purbeck Folk Festival 2012 such a success. It was the PURBECK Folk Festival Thank You party!! And it was great fun. Music was provided by Catherine Burke, The Bonsai Pirates and The MotherUkers. We like to thank all of our stewards, volunteers and musicians for helping us create such a wonderful event. We say thanks by buying everyone a drink and some food at Centre Stage (home of Bournemouth Folk Club) and having a party. And great fun it was too! Thanks for all your help everyone. 19 January 2013 - HEADLINERS ANNOUNCED... Show of Hands - Karine Polwart - Dizraeli & the Small Gods - Carrie Rodriguez - Sheelanagig - Sarah Savoy & the Francadians - Urban Folk Quartet - Sheelanagig - Martha Tilston - The Carrivick Sisters - Leon Hunt n-Tet - Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker - Miranda Sykes & Rex Preston - Dyer:Cumming - Catherine Burke Band -The Klezbians - Pete Morton - + loads more 21 December 2012 - It's nearly Christmas and we're making some exciting bookings. The line-up for Purbeck 2013 is looking amazing and we can't wait to tell you all about it in the New Year. 01 October 2012 - 2013 Tickets now on sale!! We are pleased to announce that tickets are back on sale through Ticket South. As promised (or hoped for), we have been able to negotiate a lower percentage booking fee and you only have to pay 5%. Great news! For those of you who'd prefer to avoid this, you can still download the booking form and send you checks to us with a stamped addressed envelope. Tickets are availiable at the SUPER EARLY BIRD price of £70 until Oct 5th. That's this Friday. Get them while you can! 31 July 2012 – Announcing... The Purbeck Folk Festival 2013 POETRY SLAM. Are you a budding poet? Enter the Poetry Slam. Steve Biddle (winner of the Bournemouth Festival of Words 2012 Slam) will be hosting a slam throughout the weekend. The first heats will take place on throughout Saturday afternoon with the semis and grand final (on the new Fire Stage) on Sunday afternoon. If you're a poet and you fancy going head-to-head against other poets in a friendly competition, all you need to do is send us an email in advance stating your interest... cath@purbeckfolk.co.uk ...and come armed with your best poems! First heats are one poem each (3 minute time limit) and semis and grand final consist of 3 x 3 minute rounds. 17 July 2012 – Just sorting out the STEWARDS rota and we still have some spaces left for helpers. If you’d like to get involved and join the team, please email me... cath@purbeckfolk.co.uk 16 July 2012 – Just back from LARMER TREE Festival. What a fantastic (and muddy) festival. Great sets by local Dorset bands – Catherine Burke Band, Fearne and Pachango who will all be playing for us at Purbeck this year. 15 July 2012 – Up early from Larmer Tree to move on and play at Tolpuddle Martyrs’ Festival. Lovely little festival and the SUN came out!! Does anyone else remember what that looks/feels like?! 10 July 2012 – Lushfest – whoa there!! There was a lot of mud. I had a lovely time playing as Catherine Burke Band and as with every festival, picked up tips and pointers and good ideas to use at Purbeck. 9 July 2012 – PRIDDY Folk Festival – amazing weekend. Highlights... playing with Djambo, getting up and playing with Stompin Dave Allen, and RORY McLEOD & The Familiar Strangers – what a great gig. We’re talking about a little twinning association with Priddy. Having seen The Jaywalkers at Purbeck last year, they were booked for Priddy this year. We are similar festivals with similar tastes in music. 30 June 2012 – Just back from Bristol zoo and the WOMAD take-over. Great fun! If you weren’t a fan of the rain – come to Purbeck in August and watch the music under the cover of the high barn, the low barn, and the fire stage (which will rotate under the marquee if it’s wet) and the duck shed. 25 June 2012 – ANDY STOCK is the far and away winner of the Bournemouth Unplugged Music Awards ...and what a performance he pulled out the bag for the final! We’ve just pinned dates and times down and he will be playing for us on the Sunday afternoon. He will be joined by Hawkeye Houlihan local banjo extrordinaire who will be flying in from Norway on Sunday morning especially for the gig. 21 June 2012 – JUST BOOKED Nick Girone-Maddocks from the Thunderbridge Bluegrass Boys has been in touch. We were trying to book the whole band, but they’re not all available. So we’ll have to wait until next year. BUT, having performed a storming set at Bournemouth Folk Club, Nick has been in touch and said that he’d love to come and play a solo set. Jules Bushell will be around playing double bass for the Catherine Burke Band so he may well be talked into joining in with Nick – and that’ll be half of Thunderbridge! 14 June 2012 – JUST BOOKED Krista Green, last year’s winner of thr Bournemouth Unplugged Music Award has agreed to come back and play for us again this year. 11 June 2012 – Great weekend at WIMBORNE Folk Festival – back out on the flyering and promotional journey for this year’s Purbeck Folk Festival 1 June 2012 – JUST BOOKED Aimee McKenzie sent us a link through Facebook and she’s great. So, Aimee will be making her Purbeck debut on Saturday afternoon. 23 May 2012 – DJAMBO are finishing off Purbeck’s Friday night. The Burke family band are back, but with the usual bass player having a prior engagement, they will be welcoming the youngest member of the Burke family on stage for the evening. The incrdibly talented 12 year old, Connor Burke will be making his Purbeck Folk Festival stage debut – youngsters may remember him from running the children’s singing workshops in previous years. 21 May 2012 – We’ve been working hard all week designing our new eco-toilets. They’re going to be throughout the site, not just in the camping fields this year, so we’ll be eco-pooing everywhere! 16 May 2012 ART - I'm just back from a meeting in The Furlong with the delightful Rose Perry who has a million and one ideas for different big art at Purbeck this year ...including a children's treasure hunt. It all looking amazing. 20 April 2012 - I’ve just judged the first round of the Bournemouth Unplugged competition and I can honestly say that there are SOOOooooo many good acts in the competition that I’m absolutely certain that more than one of them will end up being asked to play at Purbeck this year. The main winner of the Bournemouth Unplugged awards wins a variety of prizes including CD recording, mastering, pressing, a spot with us here at Purbeck. Krista Green was last year’s winner and was absolutely fabulous. 15 April 2012 - I’m back from judging the Dorset Music Awards. What a lot of talent Dorset has to offer. There was only one winner for the prize of playing at Purbeck Folk Festival and that went to PACHANGO. What a great up-beat party band ...so we’ve given them a whopping spot closing the Sunday night and therefore closing our festival for 2012. Pachango also won spots at Larmer Tree festival and Dare 2 festival. 8 April 2012 Bournemouth Beer festival has totally got me in the mood for Purbeck's mammoth choices on the real ale and cider front. Seriously, how many real ales can you fit into one small festival?! And it was good to see Purbeck Folk Festival favourites Quinns Quinney going down a storm. Much love to the cider-swilling skiffle boys. 3 April 2012 You might not find this one as exciting, but we've been toilet planning today. The eco-toilets built for the campsite last year worked brilliantly and we're making sure that we'll be eco-pooing everywhere this year. 30 March 2012 More bookings!! Rory McLeod and the Familiar Strangers have just been confirmed to play at Purbeck. Rory did a stomping set at Bournemouth Folk Club and it was there that we got talking about Purbeck. He's also agreed to fit a workshop in for us. As well as seeing him on stage, you should keep an eye out for him in the sessions - he loves to play! 15 March 2012 Aaaaarrgghhhh!!! This year we're pirate themed! Whoop whoop! I mean, aaaarrrgh! 7 March 2012 LATEST BOOKING!! THE DESTROYERS. Oh yes, Birmingham's finest gypsy madness from the 15-piece virtuosos. The Destroyers will be headlining Sunday night 25 February 2012 We are please to announce that the fantastic KT Tunstall has been booked for Saturday night! Next year's festival dates: 24 - 26 August 2012 LOST PROPERTY from Festival 2011 Kamichi camera Samsung phone Various jackets If any of the above are yours and you want to pick them up, contact paul@purbeckfolk.co.uk 24 August - The Jurassic Jaunt is definitively at 11am on Sunday morning. Apologies for wrong information! Actually it's a really good walk. 19 August - Latest newsletter Just a few more items of information. - If you haven't had a chance to check out the festival bands, Facebooks for 'Folk Dorset' and 'Purbeck Folk Festival' have vids of some headline acts. We'll keep updating until the festival. - For a small music festival, there is an unbelievable range of real ales and ciders in the bar. - More food choice this year as the festival is a little bigger. - Local community is running a tea and cakes stall to raise some funds for the church (... any home-made cake donations will be appreciated!). - Seating is not provided in barns.  - Disabled camping area is close to the music area. Please note it is only available if pre-booked.  - And if it rains, .... NO PROBLEM in the festival area! .... The stages and the bar are in very very large, covered, adjoining barns. When the festival is over, please let us know your comments either on brief paper questionnaire or by email. This is very important for us!  17 August LATEST NEWSLETTER ! Well, folks, it's looking like we could sell out in advance after all. The latest figures show that we have just over 200 weekend tickets remaining on sale. The last week has been amazing as ticket sales spiralled upwards.  ENTRANCE to the festival is ONLY from B3069 (Langton - Kingston).  Please do not try to enter the festival site from the main Swanage - Corfe road A351. This is the Artists Entrance. There is no access to the festival campsite or day parking from there. Cars would have to be turned back on a narrow farm road. MUSIC NEWS  Everyone knows the stage line-up is brilliant so here is news about the festival's "Folkie Fringe"!! The music workshops will take place in the 'Folk Front Room' (marquee). - BRIAN FINNEGAN (of the band Kan and ex-Flook) will be giving a flute and whistle workshop on Sunday morning at 10am. Not bad eh? Probably the best Celtic whistler in the world. - Community Singing Workshop with Ali Sharpe - a popular annual event both mornings. - Poetry workshops with festival poet Paul Tobin and a poetry circle with three more poets. - In the small bar, you find the THIRD STAGE. An open mic event continuing over the weekend compered by experienced folksingers. If you want to give a song in an intimate setting, this is for you. MORE FUN TIMES AHEAD - We are inviting festival-goers to dress up any time over the weekend for our festival theme "Cowboys and Indians". Yee ha, kimo sabi! - Adults !! BRING YOUR TRAINERS and sweatbands to join in with the SILLY ARMY. They lead fabulous silly games like 'polo on space-hoppers' and 'giant tennis' and lots more) in three two-hour sessions, the first one starting Saturday at noon. - Young Poole-based morris dance team ANONYMOUS will be giving a display and running a workshop from 2pm on Saturday. Join in and have a dance! - Andy Pedrick will take a group on a Jurassic Jaunt; a four-mile guided walk across the Purbeck Hills on Sunday late morning. The views from Nine Barrow Down are unbelievable. CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES (before you read on, care and supervision of small children are the responsibility of parents at all times - festival team can't baby-sit) - Craft workshop in the Kids Craft Den (Friday evening 5-7pm and during day on Saturday and Sunday; - Kids' Singing Workshop on both mornings - Youth Music Workshop with bluegrass duo Mike and Jay of The Jaywalkers. - Wishing Tree. PROGRAMME - the full details of everything at the festival with exact times will be published in the Festival Programme. BEER - Mick Callaghan (guv'nor at the Bar) has over 20 real ales for us to sample over the weekend. Not bad for a small music festival !! CAMPING - is included in your weekend ticket FREE of charge from 12 noon Thursday 25 August to afternoon Monday 29 August. And we have some requests. BAR - The festival bar is open all the time until very late. Please do not bring alcoholic drinks into the festival area. LITTER - We are fortunate to have a lovely farm for the folk festival. Please let us make a real commitment to keep the farm looking good and tidy during the festival. Don't drop litter and let us use our influence to stop others leaving a mess.  I can't wait for the festival. It's going to be really special again this year In the meantime any questions, just email. We are always happy to answer. Best, Paul 2 August - Morris dancing ! The farm is perfect is so many ways for the festival but the potential for morris dancing is limited as it requires lots of hard even ground. However, we have one great young team called ANONYMOUS MORRIS from Poole who will be dancing for the festival in the 'courtyard' early on Saturday afternoon. They will also be running a workshop for anyone who fancies a dance. 25 July - Day Tickets are available from TICKET SOUTH for Friday (£20), Saturday (£35) and Sunday (£35). 23 July - update from Phil Watkins: The Barn Stages Have started building the stages today. Bales are in situ. Bank is looking great, a blanket will be required but if its hot it will be the place to be. It's Phil who turns the farm into a festival site. He cooks too! Children This year we have moved the children’s area into a small fenced field next to the veggie patch, just off of the main yard.  We’re having a Wild west theme to the festival this year and this will be reflected in the area and our activities.  We are on the hunt for tepees for the space and hoping to have a fort for the cowboys.  There are a large group of helpers, who will be providing a large variety of workshops: - Friday 5 till 7, Saturday 10 till 4, Sunday 10 till 4. We must stress that Festival organisers and events leaders cannot take responsibility for the care of children. Parents must be directly and fully responsible for the care of their children at all times during the festival. Bar The bar will be open from Friday afternoon and throughout the festival.  We will have a massive range of local real ales and some classic brands, ciders and largers.  Real ales will be tapped as required so check out the main board to see which ales are available.  We also cater for off sales so just ask for a take-out. Camp Fire We are planning to have a festival fire for all to enjoy in the yard area that everyone can sit around late into the night.  (Note = we would ask that festival goers do not use Chinese lanterns this year.  This is a guideline issued across the Purbecks due to the dry weather and the sensitive heath areas we have close to the site.) 21 June - Cooking food on the campsite There is no problem with cooking on the campsite, its just the naked fires we cannot have this year.  A small BBQ is permitted as long as it is in a metal BBQ off of the ground. There will be lots of food available on the festival site so you will have lots of choice. 20 June - Third stage As in 2011 there will be a third stage. This will provide some open mic opportunities. More details will be published about this later. The third stage will - like the other two stages - have the benefit of a professionally managed PA and an experienced musician to compere. Enquiries welcome by email to paul@purbeckfolk.co.uk. However we will not be booking out the slots before the festival. 17 June Headliner SETH LAKEMAN's album "Hearts and Minds" was reviewed by the BBC: "Ever since his Mercury Prize nomination for Kitty Jay in 2005, Seth Lakeman has cut a striking figure in conventional folk circles. Loved by traditionalists for his characterful voice and mastery of the fiddle, banjo and viola, his ear for pop melodies – and his good looks – have also won him a faithful wider audience. Five albums into his career, Hearts and Minds follows the lead of 2008’s Poor Man’s Heaven, which introduced rockier rhythms and pace to his music". (Jude Rogers, BBC) 16 June - Young bluegrass stars to run youth workshop! The award-winning bluegrass duo The Jaywalkers will be running a workshop for young aspiring musicians. Talking of bluegrass, we also have the fabulous twins The Carrivick Sisters and, from across the pond, the Water Tower Bucket Boys and The Stray Birds. 15 June FESTIVAL POET - Paul Tobin is Festival Poet for this year's event. Message from Paul's festival blog: "What will I be doing you ask? Well, I shall be running two poetry workshops and presenting the results of this on the Open Mic Stage on the Sunday. I want to try and capture the essence of the festival in its many facets and to do this I shall be talking to everyone I can about their experience, what makes the festival special for them. I shall also be reading around the festival site. If you are there, find me and present me with the voucher below and you can have your own personal poetry recital!" 7 June SHEELANAGIG joins the line-up for Sunday's danceable late night extra! Sheelanagig's special brand of music-making, which they quite legitimately dub "acoustic world-folk mayhem", incorporates and fuses a number of ethnic styles, most noticeably gypsy jazz, Celtic folk, East European dance tunes and North African - with more than a dash of Latin, ska, klezmer and even medieval. (Living Tradition) From newsletter 20 May "CAMPING" There are big improvements in the camping arrangements. We move to the fields on the side of the farm by the B3069 (Langton Matravers to Kingston road). There are four zones planned:  - camping only (no cars but with car-park in adjoining field); - campers field for camper vans, tents, caravans (in which cars can be parked next to tents etc); - quiet zone; and  - day parking field." NEWSLETTER - June 2011 (extract) Day tickets will go on sale from 1 July. More Late Night Extras in the Long Barn! Audience at both of the festivals tell us that the danceable 'late night extra' in the Long Barn has been a popular feature of Purbeck Folk Festival. More Late Night Extras in the Long Barn! Audience at both of the festivals tell us that the danceable 'late night extra' in the Long Barn has been a popular feature of Purbeck Folk Festival. So DJAMBO play Friday and QUINNS QUINNEY the Saturday night.  As the festival extends to Sunday this year, we have an extra new late night event.  The fabulous SHEELANAGIG pay the final gig of the festival in the Long Barn. So as celtic firepowered UISCEDWR finish their last-ever gig on the High Barn on the Sunday night, Sheelanagig will be just striking up on the Long Barn. A nice finale? FESTIVAL POET - a new initiative at Purbeck!  Paul Tobin had been chosen as our festival poet for 2011: for Paul Tobin's blog, click here   LESTER ALLEN (above) and WILL POUND (right)   1 March 2011 YOUNG PURBECK FESTIVAL STARS on BBC2 in 'Goldies Band: By Royal Appointment' On Saturday night at 9pm BBC2's series of three programmes 'Goldies Band: By Royal Appointment' features a group of musicians (aged between 16 and 24) two of whom play Purbeck Folk Festival in 2011.  - Bournemouth-based songwriter, Lester Allen, who was nominated by Purbeck Folk Festival, Young songwriter Lester Allen played a solo set in Long Barn at the festival in 2010. - Also in this series of programmes is Will Pound (melodeon, harmonica), currently on the Folk degree at Newcastle. Will's duo with young banjoman Dan Walsh was booked professionally at Larmer Tree 2010 and is booked for the Saturday at Purbeck Folk Festival 2011. ...... 20 December: first headliners announced: PO'GIRL !! 2010 (We have left one or two notes below from 2010 festival news) - the festival is listed in The Independent today as one of "TEN BEST GIGS": "PURBECK FOLK FESTIVAL - One of Dorset's spectacular stretches of Jurassic coast is the host for this gem of a festival, with Megson, Martha Tilston and Dogan Mehmet on the bill at lovely Langton Matravers." Catherine Burke, one of the festival directors, is being interviewed on the Sally Taylor Show tomorrow Saturday morning on BBC Radio Solent. There is lots for kids to do at the festival with parents: Singing Workshop each morning, Craft Den open most of the time, Fossil Fun, Games Room, Wishing Tree ... and on Sunday there is a Youth Music Workshop with fiddler Charlie Heys and singer-guitarist Jack McNeill - all instruments welcome. - FRINGE ACTIVITIES on Sunday, a Jurassic Jaunt , a guide walk down along the coast and along the Ridgeway; Workshops for Samba and Community Singing; and Stone-carving. - SEATING Don't forget that seating is not provided so please bring your own. - DISABLED CAMPING or PARKING Please would anyone needing to use the very limited designated area for disabled camping please email us to book the space. BARN STAGES There are two music barn stages - High Barn and Long Barn: The High Barn is larger and on a slight incline. However the Long Barn also has a full and structured schedule of good music. It houses the ceilidh early on Saturday night and features touring headline duos: acoustic blues from Fran McGillivray and Mike Burke from London and English traditional music from Black Peak. Local greats like Alex Roberts, Thirstyman and Bob Whitley & Frank Boyle also play Long Barn on Saturday. SEATING the festival has very limited seating (mostly in the bar / cafe area). You are invited to bring your own collapsible seats. FARM SHOP The farm has a shop on site. It sells its own produce: milk, meat etc. Check out the Farm's website.

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