Plans for events in 2020 are coming along nicely. Our first meeting of the year will be held on 25 April 2020 in Swindon, on the doorstep of the Great Western Railway Works where Alfred Williams operated a steam hammer, and which was the centre for his forays around the Upper Thames Valley. Williams will, of course, be featured in the meeting but we are scouring the West Country for other possibilities for the day. If you have something that you would like to be included, please get in touch. The meeting venue is within walking distance of the mainline station and has private parking. There will be a programme of other activities for the weekend.
On 21 November 2020 we will head to the north of England for our first meeting in Carlisle, where Sue Allan is putting together a programme reflecting folk song in the region. More detail on this will emerge in the coming months.
We are hoping that we will be able to organise a conference in the early summer – ‘The Folk Voice’. Having had a number of events focusing on collectors and on tunes we believe that it is appropriate to look at singers and the performance of songs. We hope that date and venue will be confirmed soon. We are planning that this, like the Tunes Conference we organised last year, will be a low-cost event at a readily accessible venue.