Deadline: Tuesday 7 DecemberBroadside Day: Saturday 20 FebruaryCecil Sharp House, London NW1 Organised by the Traditional Song Forum and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, the Broadside Day is the annual one-day conference for people interested in in street literature in all its fascinating aspects – broadsides, chap books, songsters, woodcuts, engravings, last dying speeches, catchpennies, … Read more
Saturday 24 Oct 2026 9:30am-5:00pmCecil Sharp House, London£40 | £30 concession (tickets include buffet lunch) This one-day conference organised by the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library (EFDSS), explores the current place of folk arts in England in relation to the UK-wide implementation of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage This will be … Read more
Fourteen Fleeting Weeks: Maud Karpeles and Newfoundland Folk Songby Anna Kearney Guigné and Glenn David Colton Published jointly by The Ballad Partners (London) and Memorial University Press (Newfoundland) Thursday 12 November 7-9pm Cecil Sharp House, London NW1 Free (but please email to reserve a place – steveroud@gmail.com) Between 1929 and 1930, Maud Karpeles, one of the … Read more
Frank Kidson (1855-1926) was a key player in the explosion of interest in traditional song and music in late Victorian and Edwardian England, and his pioneering book Traditional Tunes (1891) was one of the three founding works of what became the first Folk Song Revival. As well as collecting songs in the field, he amassed … Read more
Julia Bishop pointed out this interesting lecture: The North American British Music Studies Association is excited to share our next Online Colloquium event: Oskar Cox Jensen, “Ballad Singing: Music and History.” The importance of street balladry to much of British social, cultural, and political history between, say, 1580 and 1850, is hard to deny. Its … Read more
Details of this year’s lecture can be found on the website https://roypalmerlecture.org/new-2026/
It is a long way off yet, but I can share the news that Mossy Christian and Megan Wisdom have invited the TSF to hold a conference in the lovely city of Lincoln in the spring of 2027. We will let you know how the plans unfold.
The TSF have taken over the running of the Roy Palmer Lecture series, with financial assistance from a new sponsor. This years’ lecture will take place at Whitby Folk Week as usual. The speaker will be Katie Howson, who will talk about traditional women musicians in East Anglia. More details to be announced shortly.
A new film, made as part of the ongoing joint project ‘Gypsy and Traveller Voices in Music Archives’, involving the VWML, the University of East Anglia and researchers from the University of Sheffield, was premiered at the 9th Ake Dikhea? International Festival of Romani Film in Berlin on 11 October. Library and Archives Director Tiffany … Read more
The annual online lectures on contemporary and historical folk music, song and dance.13 January: Elizabeth Bennett – Dorothy Marshall and the Women of West Sussex10 February: Sue Allan – Merry neets, morris and more: social and display dancing in the Lake District and Cumbria10 March: Lucy Wright – Folk is a Feminist Issue! Uncovering the … Read more