The Sidmouth Folk Festival

International folk bands and troupes put on an act at Sidmouth

Clive Gunnell reports from the Knowle Arena Theatre at the Sidmouth Folk Festival. An Afro-Caribbean Steel band called Victor Phillips and the Tropical Harmonies, a Punjabi Dance Troupe from Wolverhampton, the Josa Jakobic Dance Group from Yugoslavia (more precisely Zagreb, the capital of Croatia) and Irish dancers all perform for the folks in the audience.

The Folk Festival started in 1955 as a week-long seaside celebration of music, dance and song and was founded by the English Folk Dance and Song Society. It expanded and was renamed the Sidmouth International Folklore Festival but dropped the word Folklore in 1986. Funding issues stopped the international version of the festival but in 2005 Sidmouth Folkweek was relaunched by popular demand.