Who are we ?

Folk Around Bristol is an organisation dedicated to encouraging folk activity in the greater Bristol area, and made up of a small group of enthusiastic volunteers. We're just a few ordinary people who enjoy various folk type activities and want to spread the word. We hope you'll support us by letting people know about the website, and letting us know about your ideas and opinions.

What do we do ?

We've been around since 1995. For the first nine years we ran a ceilidh series featuring most of the country's top folk dance bands and callers. In 2000 we put on a concert featuring the Old Rope String Band. Six years later we staged a second concert woth Morris Offspring and the English Acoustic Collective. We collaborated with Mangotsfield Village Festival in 2000 by sponsoring a series of schools' workshops with Pete Coe. Finally, for ten years we organised the annual Folk Around Mayday event in the centre of Bristol with the support of many local performers.

The website

It's been missing for a time due to technical difficulties. You'd think that after 30 years in the IT business we'd know how to get a website together without the help of some spotty sixteen year old. Well the SSYO is now 24 and moved out of FAB Towers, and his replacement is more interested in girls and Bristol Rovers, so it's left to us more mature people (although no-one could accuse Morris dancers of being 'mature'). As you can see, it's still written in cutting edge, state of the art Front Page Express as chosen by the discerning web developer.

It's currently in three sections with a few extra bits, and covers the greater Bristol area and occasionally beyond. There's a What's On section which includes all the folk related concerts, gigs, performances etc that we know about. The Clubs section contains contact details and venues of regular meetings, practice nights etc. Finally the Links page is there to point you in the direction of a wide range of websites. If you spot an error anywhere, or want us to add an event etc, please tell us.

And, as if that's not enough, we've added a 'Website of the Week' feature on the menu page. This will generally be something topical like a band appearing in Bristol or a forthcoming festival. We're more interested in the content rather than the technical complexity of the website, and the choice will not be influenced by any attempts at coercion or bribery.

Actually it might be.

A pint of Thatchers should do it but don't tell anybody.