St Albans Folk Music organises pub music sessions, a monthly
concert series, ‘Folk at the Maltings’, and an annual 'New roots' competition
for young musicians. It is a part of the 'Folk at the Festival' Committee which
organises the St Albans Folk Festival.
Folk at the Maltings
This will resume in the autumn of 2022
and move to Sundays. Meanwhile we have organised a concert at the Roman
Theatre, Verulamium.
Roman
Theatre, Verulamium
Tuesday
May 31, 7.30pm The John McCusker Band. John
McCusker featuring Sam Kelly,
Helen McCabe and Toby Shaer plus support from Ellie McCann. This is
part of Ovo Theatre’s Roman Theatre Open Air Festival. To book, go to https://ovo.org.uk/big-shows/john-mccusker
New Roots, an event for young musicians. The
2021/22 final took place on Sunday March 27 at Trestle Arts Base, St Albans.
St
Albans Folk Festival June 24-26, 2022
We are planning to hold a full
festival, including a Day of Dance, live performances in city centre pubs and a
festival concert featuring Miranda Sykes plus New Roots finalist Alex Jenkins and
Watford Folk Club Song Writing Competition winner Paul Fincken on Saturday June 25
at 7.30 pm at St Saviour’s Church, Sandpit Lane AL1 4DF. Tickets available at www.ticketsource.co.uk/stalbansfolkmusic
by phone at 0333 666 3366 or on the door. There will be an open ‘taster’ day at
St Saviour’s Church and Hall for families and young people on Sunday afternoon June 26.
Further details of the programme for the weekend to follow shortly.
St Michael’s Street Folk evening
From 1988 to 2019, we held a popular event St
Michael's Street folk evening on the first Wednesday evening
in July, with dancing in the street and music everywhere. This could not happen
in 2020 or 2021 because of the coronavirus pandemic. Please join us in St
Michael’s Street on Wednesday July 6 2022.
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.
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. Look out for them
over the summer at festivals and other events.
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.
Monthly sessions were held at the Great Northern, London Road at 6.00pm on Sundays, usually on the fourth
Sunday of the month. These have been suspended until further notice. We have
approached the pub about resuming but have yet to hear any news.
Links to other
regular events in St Albans
Contact Alison
Macfarlane
Tel 01727 852111
Email: info@stalbansfolkmusic.org.uk