The First Week in August
The First Week in August - Fifty Years of the Sidmouth Festival by Derek Schofield
Back Cover reads:
Just one hundred folk dancers gathered in the beautiful East Devon town of Sidmouth in the first week in August in 1955. Their intention was to perform for the general public, and enjoy the friendship and fun of a week's holiday with dancing. Fifty years later, the motives are just the same. Only now, the Festival participants are numbered in their thousands, and the programme has been extended to include not only the folk dances of England, but also song, music, storytelling, dance and theatre from across the globe.
The Sidmouth Festival has always reflected, and often led, the folk music and dance movement. It was the first major folk festival in the country, and it continues to set the standard. The many new initiatives over the last fifty years have included separate song events, international dance and music groups, a Children's Festival, a workshop programme, world roots music, theatre productions and a youth programme called Shooting Roots. The venues include the Parish Church and public house bars, marquees in the middle of the town and the magnificent open-air amphitheatre of the Knowle Arena.
For fourteen-year old Willow Smallbone, 'Sidmouth Festival is truly a part of my heart', whilst Pamela Gold feels that, 'The title of the event fails to conjure up the colour, excitement, spectacle, verve and vitality that abound; it has a completely universal appeal'.
Illustrated with over 450 photographs, more than 120 of them in colour, The First Week in August: Fifty Years of the Sidmouth Festival is a year-by-year account of just how this event became the most significant folk and roots music festival in the country, spreading the fame of Sidmouth across the world.
Derek Schofield is a former Arena Director of the Sidmouth International Festival. He has been attending the Festival since 1971, as a singer, dancer, compere and adviser. He has contributed articles about traditional music, dance, song and custom to a number of periodicals, and has also written extensive biographical notes for albums of traditional music and song by William Kimber and Fred Jordan. He is Deputy Director, Finance and Administration at South Cheshire College.
Published by Sidmouth International Festival
ISBN: 0-9547502-0-9 / 9 780954 750206