I arrived in Weymouth by train on 31st May and quite by chance found the Wessex Folk Festival taking place. This is a free festival but to keep it going visitors buy the sponsored programme and put change into circulating plastic buckets. The festival is a delight and, although I had not heard of the many acts that performed on the main stage at Brewer’s Quay or the small stage by the harbour, the music was fantastic and well worth hearing. Morris teams took turns to dance in the square and along the street to wonderful effect.
The Unprepared Jugband on the small stage
The Stone Donkey Pilots on the Main Stage
(I was dazzled by this band so much so I bought their CD, “So Darn Good”)
Morris Dancing by the harbour
Saturday Night Folk Session at The Sailors Return
Weymouth is found on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, so called because of the many fossils that can be found along the cliffs lining the shore, and is one of England’s most enchanting seaside towns. I arrived here by train and it was a delight to stay in a Guest House near the seafront and to sample the local ales with names like Piddle, Life Boat and Wey Ale. It is not everyday that you can go into a bar and order a refreshing pint of Piddle that is really thirst quenching.
The Old Rooms Inn
(I enjoyed listening to evening song sessions here during the Festival over a glass of piddle notably with the Unprepared Jugband.)
Make sure you check out the Festival’s website below for next year’s event. If you go then you will be in for a treat.
Keith Jahans
Editor, Peatmore Press.
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