English Folk Dance and Song Society: Talent Development Partner 2019
Future Folk is a year long programme to support the develop the creative and performance opportunities for artists wishing to work in the genre of English folk music.
Artists will be able to apply for creative bursaries to support research and development into new interpretations of English folk music. Applicants can apply to collaborate with artists from other music genres or other art form to explore the possibilities around cross-genre and cross-arts creative activity inspired by English folk music.
Past creative bursary recipients have collaborated with brass band musicians, storytellers, and dancers, and been inspired by stories of south sea whaling, the first world war, women’s suffrage and family stories. Musician/song-writer Rowan Rheingans was a 2018 bursary recipient who used her bursary to explored stories about her grandmother, working with a theatre director to turn this in to her first solo show which tours in summer 2019.
The programme also provides performance platforms for artists at three festivals and one showcase – Sidmouth Folk Festival (Devon), Manchester Folk Festival, and Stage4Beverley (Yorkshire). Working in partnership with the festivals to programme 7 performances opportunities, this provides a great opportunity for young artists to develop their performance experience, develop their own fan-base, and make links with festivals for future performances. Manchester Folk Festival is partnered with English Folk Expo, the annual showcase event for English folk and acoustic music, and so artists performing on the EFDSS stage will have exposure to UK and international performance bookers.