Wakefield Morris Diary 2015

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| March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

****** JANUARY ******
10th Whittlesea Straw Bear Festival. Down to the fens for what was a celebration of all things molly but now encompasses all traditions. Wrap up warm folks Whittlesey is real fenland and the wind can come non stop from Siberia. Known locally as a "lazy" wind, because it goes through you rather than round you! (The spelling difference is down to locals who know it as Whittlesey and folkies who go for Whittlesea. Bit like Horbury and Horberie then.
Apparently a cold, or as Fen folk say "fresh", day for dancing. Good crowd, solid team with a depth of experience, music in fine fettle. Sounds like a good day out then. The dance master in such a rush to get down the A1 that only when he got to Whittlesy did he find he had left his wallet at home. Realising that he had given two of the team a lift down was the light bulb moment when Steve realised that all was not lost as he had a great bargaining lever! As one of the two was the lead musician that lever would need to be very big indeed.
****** FEBRUARY ******
7th Fylde Coast Workshop. A chance to learn the "Celebration" dance - unique in that it celebrates NW style stepping and can be done by any number of dancers from one upwards. No team necessary then.
****** MARCH ******

****** APRIL ******
18th Todmorden Folk Festival - This is a new one then. Maybe as one festival ends an new one springs up.
25th 10.00-4pm Ossett Market-Dance demo + stall to promote Beercart

****** MAY ******
1st-4th Long Itchington (Warwickshire) Beer Festival Weekend. Trending to the beer and beards sterotype a litte here?
9th 11.45 Alliance for Voluntary Arts-The Ridings Wakefield. First and last time we danced here they were a bit iffy about the clogs maybe times have changed? Oh and we did point out that the irons were not for "inside" work back then.
18th 8pm Pub-Dance out with Sheffield City Morris Men, Bridge Inn, Thurgoland
29th-30th Ossett Beer Cart went very well indeed, reports Ian Osborne. "The weather was good and with a number of market stalls there as well on Saturday there were far more people than last year. The dancing was good and we sold all the beer, so that we needed to open two of the sale or return barrels. All the cider went as well. Anne reckons we have made a decent profit to share 50/50 with Wakefield Hospice. Got the cart up the hill and into the Market Square in 35 minutes , 20 minutes faster than last year, but we agreed we needed to have someone to keep the procession tighter as at times those not on the ropes including the band needed to slow down at times to let the cart catch up. Approx 100 hauling the cart. 233 morris team members including some partners were there on Saturday."
So it looks like the Beer Cart is on the way to being a proper "traditional" event with record times being recorded. Tradition is of course something that happens at the same time on a regular basis hence the tradional Coal Carrying Championships at Gawthorpe. This event apparently started after a discussion in the Beehive pub Gawthorpe on how to raise funds for the village maypole. The Maypole and the Coal Carrying live on but sadly the pub is gone.

****** JUNE ******
8th 8pm Pub-Dance out with Ripon City Morris Men, Sun Inn at Colton
13th Sheffield City XL Day of Dance
15th Pub-Dance out with White Rose and Hexadaisy at the White Horse , Emley.
20th Magna Carta Celebrations, Pontefract Castle.
21st Horbury Street Fayre. On a Sunday for once but see above for the reason.
25th 8pm Pub-dance out with Five Rivers Morris, Spencer Arms Cawthorne
29th 8pm Pub-Dance out with Slubbing Billys-Kings Arms Heath

****** JULY ******
7th 8pm Pub-Dance out with Pecsaetan-George Upper Denby
11th 2x20 minute spots at Ossett Gala (BOB). BOB is I gather a TLA for "Building Ossett Better" or some such hipster phrase.
14th 11am Highfield School Gawthorpe-Rural Day Dance demo/workshop. A small but spirited display from a small but spirited team.
16th 8pm Pub-Dance out -Leeds MM-Blacksmith's Arms Kirkheaton
20th 8pm Pub-Dance with Briggate -The Mews Ossett.
23rd -26th Warwick Folk Festival. A return to a favourite festival of many years standing.

****** AUGUST ******
3rd 8pm Jowett Court-Five Lane Ends, Idle, Bradford. I believe this is a sort of "private" event at a care home where one of the team works. At least that's what they told me last year.
15th 2x20 minute displays at Upper Hopton Heritage Weekend. OK we know where and how long but when? Dancing in August can no one afford a holiday this year?
22nd To Whitby Folk Festival-Busking.Oh the memories! Back to when the team would do a full week and the procession involved a slalom on irons down to the harbour side.

****** SEPTEMBER ******
5th 10.30-4pm Lincoln Big Morris event. Actually if memory serves the BIG is the Business Incententive Group or some such TLA.
11th-13th Bromyard Folk Festival. A first for the team at this long running and successful Festival. This must have made an impact as I got an email form a woman asking for notation for "Pipers Ash" and "Celebration". Now here's the thing the request comes from a dancer with Island Thyme Morris, based in Victoria, BC. So Wakefield dances are going global.
****** OCTOBER ******
3rd Derby Folk Festival. Another first for the team though Derby has been home to dance oriented events in the past. The wonderful "Dancing England" event at the Assembly Rooms gave me a first sight of the amazing presentation skills of the Seven Champions and was home to the origins of the Rapper competion which spawned DERT. Ah the memories.
****** NOVEMBER ******
****** DECEMBER ******

26th Boxing Day at the Kings Arms, Heath Common. 12.30 pm

NOTES:
* Evening dance out means about 8.00pm or thereabouts (ish). If the musicians want to have a session this is the time to get it together.

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