We’d love you to join us: You can get a flavour of our beautiful Cotswold town is this video.
Read what dancers said about our 2022 festival here.
Previous events have had very good spectator numbers in the low 000s.
The Dancers: This is a friendly festival which is all about dancing and dancers so at the heart of our day there will be at least 36 dance groups. As always we’ll have every shade of Morris dancer but for 2023 we are really focussing on international dance styles so if your group performs Bollywood, Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, French, Greek, Hip Hop, Irish, Moravian, Polish, Samba, Scottish, Slovak, Turkish, Welsh or Zulu dances, or any other style, you are particularly invited to join us.
There’s a changing room in St Margaret’s Hall in the centre of town for those that need one. There is also a big performers’ chill out room / bag drop / cloak room upstairs in the Library for all the stuff you don’t want to carry round all day.
The Dancing: We’ll have at least eight beautiful riverside and historic dance venues around the town, some with covered alternatives if it rains. There will be at least one covered wooden dance floor for Appalachian, clog, step etc., dancers. At each location the day is divided into 45 minute dance slots with three dance groups per slot each taking it in turn to dance. You can expect to share three or four dance slots during the day, each at a different place and each with different partner groups.
Hobby Horses & Beasts: Our 10′ giant Jack in the Green will tour all the venues and we have a special event for teams’ hobby horses, beasts and giants so if you have such please let us know. At least 12 expected!
Closing Ceremony: To close the day you are invited to join us at the Tithe Barn for a massed circle dance around Jack and Jill in the Green, the traditional stripping of Jack to safeguard a good Summer and closing with Holt Morris’s unique “Signposts” dance.
Stay for the weekend! If you want to a weekend of it we have lots of hotels, B&Bs etc., and there is a pop-up camping and caravan site very close to the town centre see here. There will be a dancers’ get together on Saturday evening at the camp site, see here, campers get two free tickets per pitch. Click the link on the right for more.
Join Us! Your dance group is invited to join us so please email us. There is no closing date but the programme goes to the printers in late April and while we can expand the number of dance venues we always fill up fast so it is first come first served.