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What's on 2025 

Concerts and Ceilidhs

Free Bandstand Performances

Saturday 9th August

Saltburn U3A Ukuleles 

11am-11:20am

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Hyem

11:30am-11:50am

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Storytellers Street Band

12pm-12:45pm

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Ouseburn Folk Choir

1:10pm-1:40pm

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watersmeet

1:50pm-2:30pm

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Jacob Leightley

2:45pm-3:05pm

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Rillen

3:20pm-3:40pm

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The Hop

3:50pm-4:15pm

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Cream Tees and Wear'd Aliens

4:25pm-4:55pm

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Storytellers Street Band

5pm-6pm

Sunday 10th August

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Middlesbrough Happy Ukuleles

11:00am-11:20am

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Ouseburn Folk Choir

11:30am-11:50am

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Emma Doenges

12pm-12:30pm

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Bydales Academy Folk Band

12:45pm-1pm

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Gabriel Bath

1:10pm-1:40pm

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Infant Hercules

1:50pm-2:20pm

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Cream Tees & Wear'd Aliens

2:30pm-3pm

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Kerr, Fagan, Van Eyken

3:15pm-4pm

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Marie Little

4:15pm-4:45pm

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Naomi Kelly

5pm-5:30pm

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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:

  • Rumana Yasmin – Founder of Bok Bok Books, championing South Asian stories in children’s literature. (Bok Bok Books)

  • Ibraheem Paling – Textile artist and Nakshi Kantha revivalist. 

  • Katerina Don – Writer and curator at HerStory Foundation, passionate about transcultural storytelling. (HerStory)

  •  

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.

Meet the Artist

Join a selection of our concert artists for a hosted Q&A session with a sprinkle of music - open only to weekend ticket holders. 

All Meet the Artist events will take place in the Earthbeat Centre

Friday 8th August

1pm-1:30pm
2pm-2:45pm
2pm-2:45pm

Saturday 9th August

10am-10:30am
11am-11:30am
12pm-12:30pm

Sunday 10th August

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11am-11:45am
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12pm-12:30pm

Full list of sessions and singarounds coming soon ... 

Saltburn Folk Festival is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, registered in England company number 11821526

Registered office: SC&AA, Albion Terrace, Saltburn by the Sea, North Yorkshire, TS12 1JW Phone: 07857 924789

Directors: Stephen Michael Bullock (Patron), Nigel Peter Carden (Company Secretary), Elinor Creaby-Attwood (Artistic Director),
Ellen Mather (Design Director), Timothy McElwaine (Treasurer and Director).

Photography credits Mike Sreenan

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