The 2023 Folk Camps reunion and AGM will take place at Toddington Village Hall Bedfordshire LU5 6AN on Saturday November 25th.
The evening ceilidh will have music for dancing provided by The Unexpected Polka Band led by Alastair Gavin and Chris Jewell. All tunes played will be taken from their Unexpected Polka Tune book, and anyone and everyone is welcome to join in playing in the band.
Further details of the day will be found here nearer the time, but for now, get the date in your diary!
Bookings are now open!
Book your holidays now, and tell your friends so they can come to Folk Camps with you. If you also recruit new people to Folk Camps, you will get a discount on next year’s holidays.
Even though we are mostly thinking about Christmas, thoughts will soon turn to our 2023 holidays. We have just published the 2023 programme of Folk Camps events. You can now plan your 2023 Folk Camps holidays, and ignore the TV ads for holidays that involve airports and delays!
The 2023 programme of Folk Camps is now available to browse. Take a look now, discuss with friends and family, and make your plans for what to book. You can also browse by staff here.
We will open bookings on Boxing Day
The summer camps will be at Peakhill Farm (it’s flat!) in Suffolk, near the beaches at Aldeburgh and Southwold, close to the Suffolk Coast and Heaths Area of Natural Beauty.
As usual, we also have a full programme of weekend events throughout spring and summer. And just a few places left at our February Craft Break, at Halsway Manor this year. I’m already looking forward to my 2023 Folk Camps, are you?
You can find the latest Folk Camps newsletter (Extent) on the newsletter page, here. With news of the season just gone, and things to look forward to in the future.
We will meet face to face at Toddington for the Reunion and AGM on Saturday 19 November.
Daytime socialising, music, AGM and food.
Evening ceilidh with Jenny Newman and Andy Glass, with MC Patrick Self and other Folk Camps callers.
AGM official notification will be sent to Governing Members before the end of October.
July 2022: Updates to Covid Policy
We have thought long and hard about the best Covid Policy for Folk Camps, given the current national situation.
This policy is for the safety of you and others. We rely on volunteers to run our Folk Camps, and if the staff become ill that risks everyone’s holidays.
Please take a lateral flow test before attending camp, and only attend if you are negative.
We will refund your camp fees if you have tested positive just before camp.
Please bring further tests with you so that you can test your family if anyone develops cold or covid symptoms. You can buy them at chemists: e.g. at Boots they are £2 each test. We will take some additional precautions at each Folk Camp to reduce the chance of infection, however this cannot be a guarantee.
There are more details in the full Covid policy.
We have taken account of the changing national circumstances and regulations, and we will continue to do so.
Summary of Current Policy:
We aim to run Folk Camps as normally as possible in the current circumstances, while minimising risks to all campers, especially those who are more vulnerable.
We will update this policy as necessary throughout the season.
Our 2022 Spring Folk Camps newsletter is now available on the website. Extent is here, along with older issues too.
Due to the Platinum Jubilee, the spring bank holiday date is moved this year, and there is also an extra bank holiday.
This means that instead of the last Monday in May being the bank holiday, instead we have Thursday 2 June and Friday 3 June as bank holidays.
Our Spring Bank Holiday North Folk Camp is at the usual, favourite location of Dalton as usual. It starts on the Thursday afternoon, and continues until Sunday evening, with camping until the Monday morning. This is always a popular camp, with a tradition of activities worth getting involved in. (Duck race…?)
The Southern Folk Camp for that weekend is moved to our beautiful Miserden site, where we also have the Session and Singers Workshop Weekends. The Spring Bank Holiday South Folk Camp starts on the Wednesday afternoon, and finishes on the Sunday afternoon. It follows the Session Workshop Weekend (a few days earlier), and you can connect them with the Inbetweener: a self catering break, with no formal activities arranged, it’s a relaxing few days where what happens is up to you.
Folk Camper Alex Orchin is driving his Peel 50 (World’s smallest production car) from John O’Groats to Lands End to raise money for BBC Children in Need. He has appeared on BBC TV local and national news, various other news sites and has his own YouTube episodes documenting his journey.
He is also playing his bagpipes along the way, which Folk Campers will definitely remember if they ever camped with him!
See YouTube for episode one of his journey and his fundraising page.
