Workshops & Sessions
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​​It's all about participation on this page. Join in, have fun - and maybe learn something new!
Session at The Green Man
Saturday 12pm - 2pm
The Green Man, Victoria Road
Free singaround with Les Sullivan of Wareham Whalers.
All welcome to come and sing, play or just enjoy.
FolkActive
Saturday 10.30am to 11.30am & 12pm to 1pm
Outside Salamander, High Street
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Come and try southern step dancing with FolkActive. Short drop-in workshops will show you the basics of this fun and accessible tradition and get you dancing in under 10 minutes! Absolutely any age or experience welcome.
Irish Music Sessions
Royal British Legion, Saturday
2pm to 4.30pm
Following his successful session here last year, you can join Andrew James again for the opening Irish session. He's a Dorset based multi-instrumentalist, singer and ceilidh caller in high demand. Andrew has appeared at a number of festivals, most recently at Wimborne and Purbeck festivals in 2024.
Andrew will be appearing on Saturday alongside his band, The Raven Kings, and calling for Sunday's outdoor ceilidh for Murphy’s Lore Ceilidh.
4.30pm-7.30pm
This session will be led by multi instrumentalist David Dupplaw, former member of the 8Sharp Traditional Irish Band based in Bournemouth, and Eamonn Kennedy, continued member and guitarist in the band since 2011.
This Irish session will be predominantly tune based. David & Eamonn have played together for many years and have a huge repertoire of Irish tunes of all the different categories from jigs, slipjigs and reels fast and slow to polkas, slides and hornpipes, to name a few. We hope that you'll join them and experience the joy of playing and listening to wonderful Irish music.
From 7.30pm
Join Alex and Noeleen from the festival concert ‘openers’, Murphy's Lore Trio, who will lead an informal evening of songs and tunes. Bring your voices and your instruments or just your ears!
EuroBal with Confluence
Sunday, 2.45pm - 4.45pm
Wimborne Methodist Church, King Street
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From the Workshop Facilitators: Join us for our French Dance Workshop & Bal. We start at 2.45pm with a workshop led by Steve Earwicker, looking at the wide variety of French dances – bourrées, schottisches, waltzes, mazurkas, and more! We will also look at some simple Breton dances. As well as teaching the basics, we will look at style and variation in the dances – how to make a French dance look and feel French. Steve has run the French Dance Workshops at Chippenham, Evesham, Bridport & Swanage Folk Festivals, as well as helping to run EuroBal Wessex.
After the workshop, we have the rest of the session up to 4.45pm for a very special French Bal with Confluence Folk Duo – Gill Redmond on ‘cello & Alasdair Paton on accordion. Since playing their first Euro dance at Chippenham festival in 2018, Confluence have played at multiple festivals in the south of England including Sidmouth, Swanage and Bridport, and played concert sets at folk and cabaret clubs in Hampshire, Dorset and Wiltshire. They have also been playing for bal-folk dancing around the south of England, and for their own EuroBal Wessex events at Ibsley, Hampshire and Poundbury in Dorchester.