There will be at least 50 dance groups, that’s over 500 dancers and 120 musicians. Almost every variety of Morris dancing will be represented and we’ll have a number of other national and international dance styles, as described below. Click on the green buttons to see a list of dance groups in that catepory.
Dancers will be performing from 10.30am to 4.30pm at 10 locations across the town centre (click here for our dance locations) and at the Tithe Barn. There will be a closing parade of all dancers at the Tithe Barn at 5pm.
 | To balance all those Morris sticks and hankies we are very pleased to have number of international dance styles represented this year. The two West African dance groups are coming over specially for the GMF and we have a number of other countries’ traditional dance styles presented by groups based in the UK. | |
 | Border Morris, aka Bedlam Morris,aka Dark Morris, originates from Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire and dates back to the 17th century. Wild dances, raucous dancers, driving rhythms and enthusiastic crashing of sticks. Stand well back! Dancers generally wear black with masses of highly colourful rag ribbons and elaborate hats, often featuring tall pheasant feathers. Traditionally Border dancers had blackened faces conferring anonymity on the dancers who were supplementing their income by a bit of illegal dancing and begging. The disguise was necessary so the performers were not recognised and then prosecuted for begging, or victimised by their landlords. Today, dancers usually have a variety of colourful face paints. | |
 | Various dance schools and academies are attending and will be dancing in the children’s Fun Zone in Holy Trinity churchyard and for Jill in the Green at the The Barn Workshops. | |
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 | This is the oldest of all the Morris dance styles. Originating from Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire and Northamptonshire and where each village had its own quite distinctive dance steps and movements. Traditionally these sides were men only but over the years many ladies’ only sides have also appeared. 6-8 dancers, complex stepping, hankies waving, sticks crashing, bells jingling and sometimes with a hobby horse or a fool. They generally only perform Cotswold dances and usually dress all in white with coloured cross sashes and flowery hats. | |
 | These are mixed sex sides that also focus mainly on Cotswold dances but some include Border dances as well. They generally have more colourful outfits. | |
Sorry no Jiggers for 2025 |  | A solo morris dance, typically competition or show off dances and only danced by those considered to be the best dancers in a side. |
 | A high stepping style from East Anglia and the East Midlands. Rarely seen outside those counties so we are lucky to have some Molly dancers. Dances were performed on Plough Monday by male farm-workers with one dressed as a woman and, like Border Morris, they were dancing for money to supplement their income so they concealed their identities by blacking their faces. Traditionally they wore a modified version of their Sunday best but modern dancers usually wear very colourful outfits and face paints. Tradtipnally they dance to singing not instruments. | |
 | The most urban style of Morris dancing from the Lancashire and Cheshire woollen mills where workers sitting at the weaving machines wore hard-soled clogs with iron nails on the soles and heels, which they tapped to the rhythms of the machines to keep their feet warm. They dance with colourful decorated sticks and hoops which are symbolic of the mills’ bobbins and shuttles. Most clog dancing sides are female and their costumes are visually striking with broad sashes and generously flowered hats. | |
Links coming soon |  | Sword dancing from the pit villages of Tyneside. Dances are performed at great speed by a team of five people continuously linked by holding 20″ flexible swords called rappers. They weave intricate patterns at high speed, often with clog steps, moving smoothly in and out of complex shapes including forward and backward somersaults over the swords. A highlight is to weave the swords into a star shaped knot. |
 | A folk dance style from Somerset, Dorset and Wiltshire believed to originate from the nineteenth century ‘club walks’ of the friendly societies. Dancers carry long decorated poles, known as staves, over their shoulders whilst performing. There are only a handful of these dancers in the UK so we are extremely pleased to have bagged one of them. |