The first Folk Weekend – held last April – was an all-round storming success, and we are delighted to announce that we have been shortlisted for an Epic Award.

Epic Awards are an initiative of Voluntary Arts, the national development agency for Arts participation. They aim to showcase the very best in amateur and voluntary arts activity across the UK and Republic of Ireland.

"People who are involved in the voluntary arts come to it with a great deal of passion, with no financial reward … The result of all the enthusiasm and commitment people put into these groups is often really terrific work."
- Ed Vaizey, the Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, at the 'Growing the Grassroots' conference, 2011

To qualify for an Epic Award your project has to demonstrate Engagement, Partnership, Innovation, and Creative development.

The judging panel will decide on the final winners, and there is also a People's Choice award, which is open to anyone for voting: http://epicawards.co.uk/shortlist.php

Folk Weekend impressed the judging panel with out ethos and desire to create a festival that local people could feel a part of, and feel ownership of. Around half of our fifty performing artists were from the local area, and many local community groups were also involved – Oxford Folk Club ran an event on the Friday night, Oxfolk ceilidhs sponsored all the dance events, Oxford Fiddle Group and Rising Voices community choir performed in concerts, and Oxford Historical Dance Society ran a workshop on Elizabethan dance. We had a team of volunteer stewards who did sterling work throughout the weekend, and another group of volunteers who work all-year round to organise the festival.

Around two thirds of the events that took place during the weekend were free, and we made a conscious effort to target people who were not our regular customers. We held a series of events called ‘Folk in Funny Places’, where we staged performances in the Westgate central library, the Ashmolean Museum, and Oxford Castle. We also held children’s song workshops, invited local school children to perform, and held a very popular family ceilidh!

And the good news is that Folk Weekend is back in 2013! 19th-21st April 2013 will once again see us infiltrating Oxford city centre to fill it with folk music, song, and a lot of dancing! Weekend season tickets cost £48 (£42 concessions, £30 youth, £20 under 12), and day season and individual concert tickets will become available as the festival approaches.