St Albans Folk Music organises pub music sessions, concerts and
an annual 'New roots' competition for young musicians. It is a part of
the 'Folk at the Festival' Committee which organises the annual St Albans
Folk Festival.
Folk at the Maltings?
Before the pandemic, St Albans Folk
Music ran a monthly concert series at the Maltings Theatre. A second attempt
was made to restart it in October 2023 but was unable to attract a large enough
audience.
What
next?
Instead it was decided to hold
concerts at St Saviour’s Church where we had already started to hold events.
The church is a beautiful building with flexible space and a licensed bar. A
recent innovation is its offer to hold winter concerts in its well heated hall,
as the church itself is freezing cold in winter. Tickets for the first two
concerts at St Saviour’s are now on sale:
Concerts at St Saviour’s Church, 25
Sandpit Lane, St Albans AL1 4DF
Sunday February 25, 2024, 7.30pm in the Church Hall
An evening with Jim Causley including traditional
repertoire, modern songs as well as his own compositions and settings of poems
by his relative, the celebrated Cornish poet Charles Causley. Support tba. For information about Jim
and his music, click here.
Sunday March 24, 2024, 7.30pm in the Church Hall
The Wilderness Yet combining the acclaimed talents
of folksinger Rosie Hodgson, traditional fiddler Rowan Piggott,
and guitarist-flautist Philippe Barnes. Support tba.
Tickets for the concerts can be booked at www.ticketsource.co.uk/stalbansfolkmusic
or pay on the door. Price £15. Concessions £10, under 18 or students.
Sunday April 28, 2024, in St Saviour’s Church
‘Footwork’ devised by Lewis Wood of Granny’s Attic
in collaboration with step dancers. Make a note of the date and details will
follow.
New Roots, an event for young musicians who are under
25 and play or sing folk, roots or traditional music. For
further details, click here. The closing date for New
Roots 2024 is January 31 2024 and the final will take place on April
7 2024 from 11am to 3pm at Trestle
Arts Base. All welcome.
St
Albans Folk Festival June 14-16, 2024
A weekend of events including a day of
dance, music in local pubs and other venues and a festival concert plus our annual
concert at the Roman Theatre at Verulmium. Please
note that unfortunately we do not have the resources to offer paid slots to
performers other than our festival concert guests.
Roman
Theatre, Verulamium,
In 2024, our annual concert at the
Roman Theatre, will take place on the Sunday of our festival weekend, June 16. It will be a performance by Jez Lowe, Bob Fox and Julie Matthews entitled ‘The new radio ballads: in the footsteps of
Ewan Maccoll’ and will form part of a national tour.
Tickets are already on sale. Further details and booking information can
already be found on Ovo Theatre’s web site. For information, go to
https://ovo.org.uk/big-shows/the-new-radio-ballads-in-the-footsteps-of-ewan-maccoll/
St Michael's Street folk evening
This is now back after the pandemic and takes place on the first
Wednesday evening in July, with dancing in the street and music everywhere.
Please join us in St Michael’s
Street on Wednesday July 3 2024. This will be a ‘rest day’ for Euro
2024.
New
Roots 2023 The final took place on Sunday April 23 2023 at Trestle
Arts Base, St Albans. The judges were Alice Jones, Jack Rutter, Valmai Goodyear
and Andy Stafford.
New
Roots 2021/22 The rescheduled final took place on Sunday March 27 2022
at Trestle Arts Base, St Albans. The judges were Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne,
Ffion Mair, Valmai Goodyear and Andy Stafford. Links to videos of the finalists
are here.
New
Roots 2020 The final of New Roots 2020 was postponed to Sunday
November 1 2020 from 11am to 5pm and was online. The music can be
heard on New Roots YouTube channel.
For further details, click here.
New Roots 21st anniversary celebration, Sunday June
28 2020
The first New Roots took place in 2000 and a 21st anniversary
event was held on Sunday June 28 2020, with performances by some of the
amazing singers and musicians who have taken part over the years. This was an
online event, with videos newly recorded by over 30 past New Roots finalists.
If you missed it, you can still hear it on New Roots YouTube channel by
following this link.
Sessions Mainly traditional Irish, English,
Scottish and other traditional music. All welcome to listen or to play. Mainly
tunes, but singers welcome.
Weekly sessions at 8.30pm on Wednesdays are at the Robin Hood, 126 Victoria Street, St
Albans AL1 3TG.
Links to other
regular events in St Albans
Contact Alison
Macfarlane
Tel 01727 852111
Email: info@stalbansfolkmusic.org.uk