Wakefield Morris 2009

For information on bookings or to send us an invatation or request for an event contact our bookings secretary using the link on the current year page or our Home page

| March | April | May | June | July | August | September | October | November | December

****** JANUARY ******


****** FEBRUARY ******

7th - Fylde Coast Cloggers annual workshop at the Assembly Rooms Lytham St Anns.

****** MARCH ******

14th The usual yearly invite to Darlington Spring Thing. This is still in the process of being confirmed, but the organiser tells me, its going ahead, but with no procession again.REJECTED.
28th Joint Morris Organisations Day of Dance in Nottingham organised by Open Morris. The Federation can "select" 20 member sides, the Ring 10 and Open 5. Will Wakefield be one of the Federation sides? First step to selection is expressing an interest! The Tarts have already expressed an interest through their membership of Open Morris. REJECTED

****** APRIL ******

13th Invite to Kingswood Peak Venture Park Penistone. Displays and a workshop.
Thank you and well done to all of you who turned out for Kingswood today. It wasn't the most organised event but we stoically soldiered on and added a bit of colour to the day (and it's not every morris team that can dance Horbury Polka to a loud rock band playing "Gimme some Lovin'"). We got class! - (Anne - Your ever energetic Squire).
18th Leeds /Morley chamber have a request for us to dance somewhere. No details as yet and they know that we can't do the 19th.REJECTED
19th Invite to a St Georges Day event in Morley. REJECTED
25th Invite to Amounderness Day of Dance. Is Chorley a chore? Can we get a side? REJECTED.

****** MAY ******

1-4th Invite to Rochester Sweeps Festival. Well another trip to the Sweeps and for some of the team a return and for some a first time experience. With the passing of time more of us are taking the B&B option rather than the joys of indoor camping which is great for comfort and makes getting together for a meal or a chat up at Fort Pitt a bit special.
What about the dancing? Well John paced it nicely so that we got a decent lunch break on each of the three days and this meant we were fresh enough to give a more than creditable display when asked and still had some energy left for the procession. It was noticeable that the number of teams in town dwindled each day until by Monday there were just 14 or so and not all of those made the procession - wimps!
Good to see Terry and the Witchmen still in fine form and Linda’s Wall of Sound still driving them along. Poacher from Lincoln put the lie to the "dying" morris reports by fielding a team of tots who stood in the set with the grown-ups and gave it some wellie (is grown-up right for the bigger dancers?).
Nice to see some of the team off-spring showing up to support us - thanks Lucy and Toby. Hope the lad who had a heart problem pulled through OK and that the fire in the Casino got sorted out. So anyone for doing it all again in two years time?
9th Holmfirth Festival. Today was much of the same at Holmfirth. The sun shone, until it was time for the procession and then it rained. Think we've been there before! We did three good dance spots before lunch but our dance spot at Norridge Bottom with Wayzgoose and Alford at 2.15 was scuppered by first, the jazz band outside the music shop there and when Wayzgoose had negotiated a ceasefire with them and were just about to start, another band in the pub yard next to it struck up so we admitted defeat and all defected to the Memorial gardens to dance a bit before the procession gathered there. We did the usual procession up to the park then called it a day. It was a pleasant enough day. Main news I guess was that it was Sally's first dance out and she did well. - Anne
10th Request to do a Funday at the Horse and Jockey Horbury Bridge. REJECTED
10th Invite to Hemsworth for Scarecrow day a 1 hour spot.
23rd - 25th Dales tour with Leeds Morris. Presumably a one day option would be on offer for those who prefer their own beds of a night? Or if in travelling range two days dancing and still use your own bed? CONFIRMED.

****** JUNE ******

1st Evening out in kit at The King's Arms, Heath
6th - Invite to the Boston Spa Gala 12.30 ish to process then some dancing in the afternoon. They paid us £150 last year. They still have the boards that they got especially for us last year. Ruth has asked if we could dance just outside the gates on the street instead. CONFIRMED
13th-14th A Saturday and Sunday dance weekend in Horbury with Barley Brigg who really really want to dance with Wakefield in Horbury. The street Fayre is out as the team has accepted Scarborough and the pagan hand fast. CONFIRMED
15th Evening out in kit at The Greyhound at Saxton
19th-21st Scarborough Morris Fayre 2009 Programme of events are: Friday a Get together at the Downe Arms Hotel.
Saturday. Tours around Scarborough and district, Whitby, Robin Hoods bay, Filey, Bridlington, And Burton, Agnes hall. Saturday night Celidh with Peeping Tom, plus young persons Celidh. Interval acts, and an alternative dance band in the sun court.ACCEPTED - SATURDAY ONLY
20th Invite to Tockwith Gala. Could this be a clash with the Horbury Street Fayre? - REJECTED
21st Invite to celebrate a pagan hand fasting (wedding) at Holmfirth. ACCEPTED.
26th-28th Invite to Stroud Ale. REJECTED
BUT Also invited to the Hoxon hundred, Suffolk coast bash. Seaside trips. Massed Morris dancing.DIY entertainment. Breakfasts, Sat lunch and evening feast. Free camping. Cost. Approximately £24 pp. Which will we do? REJECTED BOTH
26-28th Invite to Oakworth Morris Weekend. CONFIRMED - Saturday only.
29th Jun - 11th JULY The Mystery plays invite to dance at Monk Bretton Priory - Also dancing are Slubbing Billy's. What nights can we do BTW the surface would be boards or a stage.

****** JULY ******

3rd-5th. Invite to Cleckheaton Folk Festival. Includes the "Whickham Cup" a competion to decide, based on public judging, the best performance by a dance side. REJECTED
3rd-5th. Invite to Lobster Potties Festival in Norfolk. REJECTED
3rd-5th Two Rivers folk music and Morris festival, Chepstow Monmouthshire. REJECTED
10-12th Invite to Fylde Coast Seaside Shindig £22 a head for a weekend by the sea. REJECTED
13th Evening out in kit at The Chequers at Ledsham
17-19th Persephone have been asked to share a weekend with Great Yorkshire Morris they invite one other side so they were wondering if Wakefield might like to join them? REJECTED.
18-19th Invite to LITTLEBOROUGH RUSHBEARING FESTIVAL - REJECTED

****** AUGUST ******

1st - Invite to a Charity Fund raiser. The venue is St Thomas's Church in Worsbrough, Barnsley. REJECTED
3rd-10th - Invite to the Sidmouth Folk Festival. The "Rubarb Tarts" are already arranging to go down and busk at this festival and that takes out some of Wakefield's stalwart dancers. So what chances of getting a decent side out for the official festival invite? REJECTED But we're already invited for 2010!!

****** SEPTEMBER ******

4-6th - Invite to Fylde Folk festival. REJECTED
5th Invite to Lincoln BIG Festival. REJECTED
5-6th Invite to Sowerby Bridge Rushbearing Festival. The Rhubarb Tarts are already doing this which hits the Wakefield prospects hard. REJECTED.
5th Invite to Ledsham Fayre - REJECTED.
4th-6th Sedgefield folk festival are wanting more Morris sides Loco's in Motion forwarded this one.
11-12th Singleton Cloggers Weekend of Dance. The sun shone and Singleton had a good weekend to celebrate their 60th year of dancing. The women did a raid on the charity shops of Poulton-Le-Fylde which are deemed to be right up there with Ilkley for "posh" gear. The dancing went well and we managed a full performance day with no repeats, a tribute to the depth of the repertoire and the experience of the dancers. The fact that we turned out twelve dancer sets for many of the dances also looks good on paper but we could still use some new blood coming on. All in all a splendid day out after a long summer break.

****** OCTOBER ******

11th Invite to join 18-30 Morris in a dance out in Pontefract. This invite come via Peter Stevens the squire of 18-30 for 2009! 11:30 by the Town Hall is the requested place and time. ACCEPTED

****** NOVEMBER ******


****** DECEMBER ******

5th The Pre-school Learning Alliance a local charity working with nurseries, pre-schools and toddler groups around the Wakefield District are holding a Winter Arts Festival, culminating on 5th December at St Catherine's Church Centre, Belle Vue Wakefield 2-3 pm with a performance by several pre-school groups. We have received some funding for the event from the Community Chest.
The groups will be singing, performing stories and music from a variety of cultures in front of their parents, peers, councillors and the Mayor.
We are looking for a short session, around 10-15 mins from either a band or dancers to provide a little more variety. A small group would suit us well, there is a stage area, but with a large 'tree stump' in the middle at St Catherine's. Sue Crouch used to work for us several years ago and we thought that we would ask whether there would be any possibility of Wakefield Morris Dancers performing for us at the event.

26th Boxing Day at the Kings Arms, Heath Common. 12.30 pm. This year the Kings had the benefit of snow to make the heath look even more wonderful than usual. Unfortunately much of the snow was right outside the front door of the pub which might have been tricky. But a clear area down by the beer garden was spotted and so a lively and comprhensive display was put on for an appreciative crowd. Thanks to a listing in "Yorkshire Life" rating dancing on the heath as one of the top ten Christmas attractions in the area the crowd was numerous, one estimate putting numbers at over 170. To all those who have supported us over the years "Thank you" to those who came for a first visit "See you next year".
Now anyone got a copy of "Yorkshire Life"? What were the other entries in their top ten and who do we bribe/threaten to get a boost in the rankings?

Back to Home Page  2008 2010