What's on 2025
Concerts and Ceilidhs
- Fri 08 AugEmmanuel Church HallExperience the best Teesside has to offer in traditional music
- Fri 08 AugSaltburn Community TheatreThe very best of traditional and contemporary songs
- Fri 08 AugHuntcliff School, Main HallJoin us for a high energy Friday night boogie!
- Sat 09 AugEmmanuel Church Hall
- Sat 09 AugHuntcliff School (Primary Hall)Family friendly ceilidh, with interval entertainment from Storytellers Street Band
- Sat 09 AugSaltburn Community TheatreCelebrating Bluegrass and Old Time music
- Sat 09 AugEmmanuel Church HallThe very best of traditional and contemporary songs
- Sat 09 AugHuntcliff School, Main HallSoaring melodies and stunning songwriting
- Sat 09 AugHuntcliff School (Primary Hall)Dance, dance, dance with the amazing DIY Ceilidh band
- Sun 10 AugEmmanuel Church Hall
Free Bandstand Performances
Saturday 9th August

Saltburn U3A Ukuleles
11am-11:20am

Hyem
11:30am-11:50am

Storytellers Street Band
12pm-12:45pm

Ouseburn Folk Choir
1:10pm-1:40pm
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watersmeet
1:50pm-2:30pm

Jacob Leightley
2:45pm-3:05pm

Rillen
3:20pm-3:40pm

The Hop
3:50pm-4:15pm

Cream Tees and Wear'd Aliens
4:25pm-4:55pm

Storytellers Street Band
5pm-6pm
Sunday 10th August

Middlesbrough Happy Ukuleles
11:00am-11:20am

Ouseburn Folk Choir
11:30am-11:50am

Emma Doenges
12pm-12:30pm

Bydales Academy Folk Band
12:45pm-1pm

Gabriel Bath
1:10pm-1:40pm

Infant Hercules
1:50pm-2:20pm

Cream Tees & Wear'd Aliens
2:30pm-3pm
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Kerr, Fagan, Van Eyken
3:15pm-4pm

Marie Little
4:15pm-4:45pm

Naomi Kelly
5pm-5:30pm

Redcar Community Choir
5:40pm-6:00pm
Workshops and Talks
Friday 8th August
Beach of Dreams with Tees and Empathy
9:30am-10:30am
Saltburn Beach
11am-12pm
Guns Bar (Basement)
Sarah, (aka Sarell,) is a member of Tees Women Poets, and runs ‘Tees and Empathy’. Her love of the sea has inspired these ‘Beach of Dreams’ workshops, designed to free your inner poet and release a flood of ideas which will surprise you. No better place than the beautiful sands of Saltburn for a blissful contemplation of your surroundings, with a few carefully chosen prompts to plant and nurture for later... Meeting again up on top, the ‘dry land’ we haul out onto will become an ocean of notions! Our sanctuary will give us a quiet, safe space to discuss feelings, share some writing and relax in the knowledge that although we may never have met before, we will know each other - and ourselves! - so much better.
Folk Organisers Meet Up
11am-12pm
Huntcliff School, Primary Hall
Do you run a folk club, organise singarounds, promote gigs or festivals? Here’s an opportunity to share what works well and to address challenges together with others. Find out what resources are available and what networks you can become part of.
Facilitated by Nigel Carden, a member of the Festival Team here at Saltburn and also Treasurer of the Cutty Wren Folk Club.
'Proper Sorts - Treading the Trad Triangle' talk by Brian Gaudet
2pm-3pm
Guns Bar (Basement)
Norfolk has been a rich area for traditional song and tunes since collectors first ventured out with pencil and notebook in the 1890s. Ralph Vaughan Williams made several forays there and was followed over the decades by E.J.Moeran, the BBC, Ewan MacColl with Peggy Seeger, Alan Lomax and more.
In this talk "Proper Sorts - Treading the Trad Triangle" featuring live and recorded songs, ex-journalist Brian Gaudet tells of the leading singers - Harry Cox, Sam Larner, Walter Pardon and more - from his home county, and their lasting legacy.
Songwriting and Poetry Workshop with
12pm-1:30pm
Scout Hut
Returning in 2025, Paul and and Alan join us in their wonderful workshop on writing for songs and poetry,
'Shadows and Whispers - Remembering Graeme Miles' by Ailsa MacKenzie
4pm-5pm
Guns Bar (Basement)
Ailsa will discuss the two-year project which brought this wonderful biography of Graeme Miles to fruition. This special launch of her biography also includes a singaround, loosely based on Graeme’s songs, which are so well known to folkies all over the world. So come early to put your name down to sing! Or simply listen. You’ll also have a chance to buy this special book.
“Your book is absolutely wonderful, congratulations on a superb piece of research and writing.”
“… a remarkable insight into the life and times of a wonderful songwriter.”
“A beautiful and very special book.”
Saturday 9th August

Bodhran Workshop with Steve Bentley
10am-11:30am
Guns Bar
Steve is a bodhrán player with folk band Greenman Rising, and has run workshops at lots of festivals including Shrewsbury, New Forest and Beardy. He welcomes everyone including complete beginners, and will have a number of drums available for those who aren’t bringing their own.
Steve will be at Guns Bar on Saturday morning to help you get to grips with the bodhrán.
Rapper Workshop with the Kingsmen
10am-11am
Huntcliff School, Primary Hall
Join the infamous award winning Kingsmen! The Northumbrian rapper sword dance is a unique tradition from the North-East of England. The dance was originally performed by miners in the pit villages of Northumberland and County Durham, but is now performed worldwide. It is performed at speed by a team of five people continuously linked by flexible swords called rappers, which are weaved in and out of figures for display.
Political Songwriting Workshop with Maddie Morris
11am-12:30pm
Scout Hut
In this session, Maddie supports participants to write their own new verses to traditional protest song “which side are you on”, thinking about current issues and using creative methods to help participants find their creative voice.
Kingsmen Clog Workshop
11am-12am
Huntcliff School, Primary Hall
Newcastle Kingsmen Clog formed 10 years ago to formalise a long tradition of clog dancers accompanying the Newcastle Kingsmen Sword Dancers. Since then the team has grown in team members, repertoire and reputation, appearing at numerous festivals and events including Sidmouth Folk Week, Utrecht Early Music Festival and Morpeth Northumbrian Gathering, where they won the group clog trophy in 2017. They mix traditional clog steps with exciting rhythm patterns and new dances composed by the team, to create performances that are rooted in the past but also move the tradition forward.
Harmonising Chorus Songs with Amy Leach and Alasdair Paul
1pm-2:30pm
Scout Hut
Join Alasdair and Amy to sing some great chorus songs and explore ways of finding your own harmonies. Open to everyone, whether you think of yourself as a singer or not!
Folk Storytelling and Songwriting with Resound Theatre
1pm-2:30pm
Earthbeat Centre
3pm-4:30pm
Scout Hut
As we mark the 200th anniversary of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, Resound Theatre invite you to join in the collaborative creation of folk songs for their original physical theatre show, 'Carriage'. “We want to showcase our unheard soundtrack to open a conversation about contemporary folk storytelling and write poetic lyrics to be sung in our show. In exchange for your creative energy and presence we offer a taste of our creative world through play, connectivity and imagination.”
Sunday 10th August
Beach of Dreams with Tees and Empathy
9:30am-10:30am
Saltburn Beach
11am-12pm
Guns Bar (Basement)
Sarah, (aka Sarell,) is a member of Tees Women Poets, and runs ‘Tees and Empathy’. Her love of the sea has inspired these ‘Beach of Dreams’ workshops, designed to free your inner poet and release a flood of ideas which will surprise you. No better place than thebeautiful sands of Saltburn for a blissful contemplation of your surroundings, with a few carefully chosen prompts to plant and nurture for later...Meeting again up on top, the ‘dry land’ we haul out onto will become an ocean of notions! Our sanctuary will give us a quiet, safe space to discuss feelings, share some writing and relax in the knowledge that although we may never have met before, we will know each other - and ourselves! - so much better.
Dance workshop with Maltby Sword
10am-11:30am
Scout Hut
Maltby Sword are a community-based team of enthusiasts who specialise in traditional English Traditional Sword Dancing. They perform dances in two distinct styles; long sword dances of the Yorkshire region and the short sword or ‘Rapper’ dances from North-Eastern England .
Youth Folk Band Workshop with M@Hot, Tom Kimber and Jon Doran
10am-11:30am
Huntcliff School, Primary Hall
Join the young musicians from Cream Tees, Wear'd Aliens and Byedales School Folk Band for a workshop in playing as a folk ensemble.
(11-18s only)
Workshop with English Fiddle Ensemble
12pm-1:30pm
Huntcliff School, Primary Hall
Four of England’s finest traditional fiddle players, Bryony Griffith, Jim Boyle, Ross Grant and Rosie Butler-Hall have joined forces to create The English Fiddle Ensemble.
All with a passion for traditional English dance and its music, their combined repertoire is vast and includes rarely played and unusual regional tunes alongside more familiar session favourites. Their aim is to engage with the audience in a way that allows them to feel the bite and lift of four fiddles resonating to create joyous harmonies and striking rhythms.
Threads of Tales
12pm-1:30pm
2pm-3:30pm
Scout Hut
Join us for a unique opportunity to explore storytelling through the Bengali folk art of Nakshi Kantha embroidery! Explore a handcrafted embroidered book, uncover the meanings behind Nakshi Kantha motifs, and share your own stories inspired by folklore and lived experience. Participants will have the opportunity to create their own motifs drawing on personal and collective narratives.
The sessions will be facilitated by:
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Rumana Yasmin – Founder of Bok Bok Books, championing South Asian stories in children’s literature. (Bok Bok Books)
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Ibraheem Paling – Textile artist and Nakshi Kantha revivalist.
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Katerina Don – Writer and curator at HerStory Foundation, passionate about transcultural storytelling. (HerStory)
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This collaboration is supported by Borderlands Creative People & Places and was funded by British Council’s International Collaboration Grant.
The workshop will be repeated twice. These workshops as part of Saltburn Folk Festival are free, but spaces are limited and must be reserved in advance here.
Folk Choir with Janice Burns
1:30pm-3pm
Earthbeat Centre
Janice Burns of the Ouseburn Folk Choir will be leading this singing workshop. By the end of the session participants will have learned a folk song in three part harmony and be able to sing it all together. The workshop is open to all singing abilities, from the shower singers to the folk club singaround regulars!
Appalachian Dance with Feet First
2pm-3:15pm
Huntcliff School, Primary Hall
Formed in 1985, Feet First Appalachian dance team is based in Chesterfield UK and is the longest-running Appalachian dance team in Britain.
Ken Hall - The First Radio Ballad
3pm-4:30pm
Guns Bar, Basement
1 hour workshop on the First Radio Ballad The Ballad of John Axon with film and audio clips, included is a physical demonstration of reel to reel audio tape editing that utilises the same techniques that MacColl, Parker and Seeger used to create the radio ballads (yes I still have my trusty Revox 10 inch recorder)
For context, this is the BBC's summary of the Ballad of John Axon
The first of the Radio Ballads, The Ballad of John Axon concerns a steam-locomotive driver from Stockport, posthumously awarded the George Cross for an act of heroism in 1957 when he refused to abandon his runaway train and saved lives at the expense of his own.