News

Paying for your Folk Camps Holiday

When you book your 2025 Folk Camps holidays, you will now pay the deposit by card as part of the booking process. The website booking form will charge £20 per person in your booking.

This mechanism will reduce the admin steps that need to be carried out for each booking; this will save Kerstin time and effort, which also reduces Folk Camps costs and helps us minimise price increases. This payment with booking will also remove the need for you to remember to make a bank transfer for your deposit.

You will still be responsible for paying the balance by bank transfer before each camp. The balance is due one month before weekend camps, and two months before summer weeks and the Craft break. If you do not pay the balance in time, then you lose the “early bird” price, and the higher rate is due.

A few members find it helps their personal cashflow by spreading the payments of the balance over the year. E.g. by making monthly payments. If you want to do this, please contact our Admin Manager Kerstin Jewell, via bookings@folkcamps.co.uk.

Patrick Self – Folk Camps Chair

AGM will be in January

The Folk Camps AGM will be held in January 2025, online only.

As we discussed at the 2023 AGM, we will no longer hold a combined AGM and Reunion, due to costs and declining attendance. Instead, an online AGM will allow more people to attend, especially those for whom it was difficult to travel to the AGM location.

In autumn 2024, we provided opportunities for governing members to talk to members of Council at the northern August bank holiday Folk Camp. Council members always welcome views and conversations with the membership. You can contact us via the office (info@folkcamps.co.uk) or the website contact form.

The AGM will be held on Saturday 18th January, 2025. Official notification will be emailed to governing members in late December 2024.

More details here.

Folk Camps Merch – T-shirts, bags and more

If you want to wear some Folk Camps branded clothing, we have you covered. We have partnered with Impact Trading to provide a range of options for you at bargain prices.

There are high quality t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies and even branded bags: maybe an ideal way to store your camping crockery, your folk camps music books, or to take your towel to the beach!

There are a variety of colours and sizes, including child and adult sizes from age 1 (20” chest) up to adult 5XL (62” chest), so surely your size is available!

They are high quality, with embroidered logos.  They are made to order, so a huge range is available. Choose a brave colourway to be unique when you wear it at a Folk Camp. Wear them to festivals and events and tell everyone you meet about Folk Camps. (Remember that if you introduce a friend to Folk Camps, you gain a Folk Camps credit!)

Start here for despatch info, and follow the link to the catalogue.

What colour will you order?

Folk Campers Guide

We have published a “Campers Guide” with information and tips for Folk Campers, both old and new. The guide for weekend camps is here, and the guide for summer weeks is here.
The guide explains what to expect at most camps, you need to bring, when things happen, and more.

There’s also more detailed information in the FAQ pages.

Logistics Manager for Folk Camps

In February, Folk Camps appointed Lorna Flower to the role of Logistics Manager.

This is a contract role, which will include ensuring that everything we need for each Folk Camp is arranged. For summer catered camps this involves booking the site, toilets, marquee, gas, food and other provisions. For weekend events, this involves booking fields and village halls.

In the past, this work was split between Jenny Hopper, who was Provisions Contractor, and Steve Porritt who was Sites Contractor. We thank them for many years of work for Folk Camps, and welcome Lorna to the team who is an experienced Folk Camper.

See more on the Contractors page.

What happened at the Folk Camps 2023 AGM?

Folk Camps held our AGM in November 2023.

The official business of the AGM included approval of the accounts, a vote to reappoint the accountant for next year and a minor change to the Memorandum and Articles of Association, (our legal document). This change will allow us to more easily change the date of our financial year end which in turn will allow us to move our AGM to a different time of year in future.

Brad Stokes was newly elected to Council, and Claire Mycock was re-elected for a second three year term.

Patrick Self (chair) also presented information to the membership.
All the documents for the AGM are on this page.

After the AGM, the new Council met and re-elected Patrick Self as Chair, elected Oscar Roberts as Vice Chair, and Claire Mycock as Company Secretary.

As a result of nominations to Council for the AGM, Council was short by 2 members. The new Council decided to co-opt Jenny Hopper (who had previously been our Provisions Manager contractor), and Hilary Hill (who has been a summer camp warden for the last 2 years).

The current full list of Council members is here.

Bookings Open for 2024 Folk Camps

You can now start planning and booking your 2024 Folk Camps.

Summer fully-catered Folk Camps take place in July and August at our popular site in Rolvenden in Kent.

Weekend self-cater camps happen throughout spring and late summer, with bank holiday weekends for all, and workshop weekends that concentrate on dancing, singing and music.

The full programme is here, and the list showing staff at each event is here. More staff are being added over the next few weeks.

Book now and be a part of it.

2023 Folk Camps AGM and Reunion

The Annual General Meeting of The Folk Camps Society Limited will take place at 2.30pm on Saturday 25th November 2023 at Toddington village hall.

It is a chance to meet up with friends you met at Folk Camps this year, or those you missed this year but want to see again. You can come to as much or as little of the day as you want. There are workshops in the daytime, a ceilidh in the evening, lots of time to socialise, and the official business of the AGM in the afternoon.

The official AGM Notification will be sent in early November to governing members containing all the information you need to participate, including your online voting credentials for voting on the resolutions.

Timetable for the day

11am. Village hall opens for you to meet and chat to your Folk Camps friends all day. Plan your next year’s camps. Coffee, tea, juice, biscuits and cake available.

11.45am The Unexpected Polka Music Workshop led by Chris Jewell

12.45pm Lunch: Soup and rolls, with some pizza slices.

2.30pm AGM (details soon)

4 pm Tea, coffee, cakes and snacks available in the hall

5pm – informal music session in the hall – anyone can play, lead or join in

after 5 pm hot food – book before Friday 24th baked potatoes and Chilli.
Send order request to jennyhopper@folkcamps.co.uk

7.30pm – Reunion Ceilidh

Band: Alistair Gavin and Chris Jewell lead the Unexpected Polka Band-everyone welcome to join in

MC Barry Pollard with other Folk Camps callers

There is no bar, so please bring your own drinks.

Reunion Ceilidh tickets from a minimum of £5 on the door (accompanied under 16s free and don’t need a ticket).

For more details, including Agenda for the AGM and all associated documents, see here.