St Albans Folk Music

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, 2023, 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, 2023, 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.

 

 

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.  

 

St Albans Folk Festival June 14-16, 2024

We have now set this date for our 2024 festival. Our initial concern about this date was that it coincides with the first weekend of the Euro 2024 football championship. As we develop our programme, we shall keep our eyes open for clashes with any key football matches.

The organising committee would be delighted to hear from anyone who is willing to help with the organisation or who has new ideas for festival events. You can contact us at info@stalbansfolkatthefestival.org.uk

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,

After a successful concert featuring the Eliza Carthy Trio as our guests to play at this iconic venue with support from Lizzy Hardingham as part of Ovo Theatre’s Roman Theatre Festival, we hope to do the same in 2024. For information, go to https://ovo.org.uk/whats-on/

 

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