Bom. Bom. Bom bom bom.

[callmemadam]

Sounds like war's broken out down in the town but no, it's just The Wimborne Folk Festival. A couple of weeks ago on Have I Got News for You there was a story about the decline of morris dancing. Jeremy Clarkson's response: 'Good!' Not much sign of decline this past weekend as you see from the cheerful chaps below, who remind me of Bill Tidy's 'Cloggies'.




These nice people agreed to pose and show off their hats.



They and the folk below are rather the traditional face of folk dancing.



On Sunday the whole town is turned into a kind of souk, where you can have corn rows put in your hair and buy a load of tat.



Everyone's in a friendly mood, especially your local police, out in numbers and all looking about sixteen.



The Minster Green was packed for a service



but these chaps had fewer customers.



There's been a lot of changes over the years in the dancing styles on display. There used to be a side we unkindly called The National Trust because they were so genteel and there would be some traditional Scottish dancing (I did see some little girls dressed for this on Saturday). Then after the first appearance of the terrific sides Feet First and Spank the Plank, Appalachian style was in. The first black face side caused a sensation but now blacking up is all the rage.



Folk/Goth fusion is what we see a lot of now: wild! Whatever would Cecil Sharp have said?

Comments

[pinkhebe.livejournal.com]

"Ah. Border Morris." most likely. Wimborne looks jolly nice: but a bit far for us to come and dance ~x~

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

People do come a long way but not in such great numbers as they used to. The car parks are all full of camper vans.
What sort of dancing do you do?

[(Anonymous)]

As you were watching Morris dancing in Wimborne, we were also watching Morris dancing in Exeter as we attended the Exeter Craft Festival which is held on the Cathedral Green each year. It was great fun and not only did we see 96 different craft stalls (about which I've written a feature for Collect It! magazine to be published later this year) but we enjoyed Punch & Judy, jugglers, a chap on a unicycle, tap dancing (not quite Irish dancing, not quite Riverdance, but something like ...) and two rather jolly chaps doing a Full Monty routine but dressed in oldl fashioned cycling clothes and with a tandem on which they performed acrobatics. It was all great fun! Furthermore, we saw some really lovely items on the craft stalls and which, as I say in my article, wouldn't have been out of place at some high-end (to use the latest jarjon) galleries.
Margaret Powling

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Craft fairs are very popular round here.I'm not very crafty, except for knitting. I must look out for Collect It! when your article appears.