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