• Events at The Folk

Third Thursday of every month at The Folk Of Gloucester 12-3pm. A session of Folk Songs and Tunes organised by Bill & Rebecca from local duo ReBil. Come and have lunch at the Secret Garden Cafe and join us.

Saffy and Jane Springham are pleased to have started running a monthly Storytelling Café at The Folk. The Café is on every first Thursday of the month from 7pm for ages 14+. There will be invited guest storytellers, music and open mic every month. We want to hear all kinds of storytelling – so whether you enjoy traditional, real life, original works, narrative poems or flash fiction there will be something for everyone! Oral telling and written tales, beginners and experienced performers alike are welcome.

We’d love you to come along and join us at our future dates:
June 1st – two guest tellers Kelly bringing stories from the Romany community and Matt McCall with steampunk fables
July 6th – Open mic special! Led by Saffy and Jane and a surprise teller – bring us your fabulous stories
August 3rd – Summer special – beach hats optional!
September 7th – Storytelling with a local history flavour
October 5th – Guest storytellers - Ominous Folk of Hopeless Maine
November 2nd – Tales for the darkening season – featured teller Fiona Eadie
December 7th – Festive tales of merriment and mirth with a little Christmas “spirit”

Gloucester folk choir, a new community choir for the city of Gloucester. Run by experienced and playful leader Sorrel Wilde. Songs from a variety of traditions, open to all levels of singer. The Choir runs on Thursday evenings from 7pm to 8:30pm during term time. *Open to all Gloucester Folk Choir is a new community choir for Gloucester, based at The Folk of Gloucester. The choir will be based on natural voice principles, there will be no auditions and generally, we will not be using music. The choir will be run by Sorrel Wilde, who also runs the Island Folk Choir in Bristol. Having grown up in Gloucester, Sorrel has relocated here and is working between Glos and Bristol. Sorrel's style of teaching is playful and focussed, she aims to put singers at ease and grow to love their voices and find their innate musicality. You can see more about Sorrel's work on Instagram: @sorrelsings Facebook: Sorrel Wilde community singing or her not-so-up-to-date website: sorrelwildesinging.co.uk The songs will be largely from the British folk tradition, but will also reach further afield and also into the wonderful Natural Voice network repertoire of gorgeous circle songs and seasonal songs. “Sorrel holds space for singing and sound in a way that instantly puts you at ease and connects the whole group. I come away from every session with a warm heart, a big smile and beautiful song arrangements floating through my mind and off my tongue all week. It's magic!” (Freya, choir member) The choir will be lgbtq+ friendly, neurodivergent friendly and as accessible as it can be. Please get in touch if you have any specific needs that we can try to accommodate.  

A time to explore textiles, join our making space to learn, share skills, experiment and explore a variety of materials and techniques. No Previous experience is required. Join us for a relaxing morning of crafting. All Materials will be provided.

Fancy yourself as the next Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell?? The Gloucester Songwriters Circle meets at the Folk of Gloucester on the third Tuesday of the month with the aim of encouraging each other in our songwriting endeavours. Everyone brings something that they are working on and offers it to the group for advice, appreciation, and suggestions. All genres are welcome. An opportunity to try out your work in a very supportive environment. For more information contact glossongs@yahoo.com Entrance is via the back gates.

Coracle brings together the talents, imagination and creativity of three artists with vastly different backgrounds, who have come together through their love of traditional music cut through with experimentation, boldness, humour and risk. Expect ethereal to turn gutsy, passion to be tempered by a good laugh and a tide of improvisation which means no two evenings are ever the same. Be thrilled by the silvern voice of Anna Tam, the free flowing mix of reeds…..clarinets and accordion….cello, nyckelharpa, viola da gamba and hurdy gurdy. With the British folk tradition at its very heart with eddies of contemporary classical and splashes of early music, ebbs and flows, squalls and flurries – each gig is a exhilarating journey of exploration and enjoyment. Paul Hutchinson is a BBC Folk Award Best Live Artist nominee with Belshazzar’s Feast, a much-feted accordion player and teacher. He’s equally at home on the concert stage, playing dance tunes for enthusiastic revellers or running workshops. His previous collaborations with Hoover the Dog, Pagoda Project and The Maniacs produced albums and performances that drew five-star reviews. Karen Wimhust is a clarinet player influenced by traditional, jazz and contemporary classical music. She’s a widely commissioned composer of chamber works; music theatre; theatre and large-scale collaborative productions ranging from the Grimethorpe Brass Band to The Welsh National Opera and the Allegri Quartet. Anna Tam was shortlisted as Fatea’s 2021 Instrumentalist of the Year, adds nyckelharpa, viola da gamba, hurdy gurdy and cello alongside a “gin pure” voice. With a background in classical music and a spell as a Mediaeval Baebe, her move towards folk with her debut album Anchoress, which brought her widespread acclaim. Her second album “Hatching Hares” will be released in June this year. Doors Open at 7pm and the performance starts at 7:30pm.

You will go a long way to find a more entertaining and engaging folk singer than Antony John Clarke. He has his own unique style of modern folk songs with words that conjure up pictures of life, painted with humour and a not insignificant touch of the old blarney. Belfast born Anthony John is recognised as one of the top songwriters on the acoustic/ folk scene, 12 albums and 3 singles including the beautiful “Seven in Ireland” and “Irish Eyes”. Anthony John enjoys an enormous following in UK, Europe, Australasia and USA. Doors open at 7pm with the performance starting at 7:30pm.

The Lost Trades are a Folk/Americana trio, based in the West Country, with a cool Laurel Canyon vibe. With a sound that is reminiscent of the California folk scene of the late 60s/early 70s, their three-part harmonies have been described as "flawless", "spine tingling" and "magical". After a global pandemic cut short their first tour after just a single sold out gig, the band retreated to their songwriting rooms to work on their debut album, "The Bird, The Book & The Barrel". The album was released in June 2021 and was well received, spending 8 months in the Official UK Folk Albums Chart. The follow up, "Petrichor" was released in March 2023, and immediately followed suit, entering the chart at #31. A live performance involves easy interchanging of instruments, with each of the three playing guitar, bass and percussion at different points. There's always a fun intimacy to the show, with the three engaging in comfortable repartee with each other and the audience like a group of old friends. Doors open at 7pm with the performance starting at 7:30pm.