The Hertfordshire Folk Association: Hatfield Summer Festival
The Summer Festival is a children's folk dance festival. It takes place in the beautiful grounds of Hatfield House, normally on the first Saturday of July. The next festival will therefore be on Saturday 2nd July 2011.
Most of the dancers come from schools. We organise workshops in the spring of each year so that the teachers can come and learn the dances for the festival.
We provide a large out-door arena, PA, a live band, and a great caller. Teachers or leaders, parents, siblings and other relatives sit around the periphery and enjoy the dancing. There are displays, usually some maypole dancing, a raffle, and (since 2009) each dancer gets a commemorative badge. Normally nearly 1000 people attend.
Click here for a map showing the location of the festival site within the grounds of Hatfield House!
A change in 2010 was that we had a couple of songs during the festival, for the children to join in. The songs were "Streets of Rochester" and "Soldier, Soldier, won't you Marry me?"
Click here to see the words & music for "Streets of Rochester" (pdf), and here (mp3) to hear it being sung by Chris Turner.
Click here to see the words and music for "Soldier, Soldier, won't you Marry me?" (pdf), and here (mp3) to hear it being sung by Chris Turner.
If you want to see the list of dances that were performed at the 2010 festival, click here.
Prices (for 2010) were as follows:-
If you buy your tickets in advance, adults cost £3.50 each, and children £2.50 each. This gives you entry to the Hatfield House grounds, and to the Festival arena area.
If you don't buy tickets in advance, adults will have to pay £3 to enter the Hatfield House grounds, plus £2.50 to get into the festival (totalling £5.50 per adult). Children will have to pay £2 to enter the Hatfield House grounds, plus £1.50 to get into the festival (totalling £3.50 per child). You'll save money if you get your tickets in advance!
An application form for tickets will be now available in 2011 for you to print out and complete, and will be sent to schools and similar organisations that might like to come. Alternatively, to be sure of getting tickets for your group, you can send an E-mail, saying that you'd like an application form, to info@hertsfolkassn.org.uk
Web-site created and maintained by Roger Swaine