By Doc Rowe
We may have been drawn into the “oh noes, teh Morris Dancers may stop fur evers” drama but we do, unlike others, realise that there is way more to British folk customs than Morris Dancing. Follow us this year as we point you toward some of London’s life-affirming and bonkers celebrations of the seasons.
In the meantime jig on over to folk-dance central Cecil Sharp House in Camden for Feasts, Fires & Frolics, a free exhibition of 40 years of British and Irish seasonal celebrations captured by field-folklorist and very-much-living-legend Doc Rowe.
The English Folk Dance and Song Society, in-conjunction with the Folklore Society, are presenting a selection of Doc Rowe’s photographs from over forty-years at Britain and Ireland’s folk frontline, photographing the strange and wonderful seasonal events that are part of the lives of the people of Britain and Ireland. Doc has been attended countless seasonal events: including the Padstow May Day ‘obby ‘ose (ribbony, dancey thing with rough music) , the Abbotts Bromley Horn Dance (it’s men dancing, with horns), the sinister, snapping horse skulls of the Welsh Mari Lwyd and much more.
Doc is the real thing, way more than the jobbing journalists who got to one Cheese Rolling event and wrote a paperback about it. Come see the wonders of this land's inner-life.
By Scott Wood
Feasts, Fires and Frolics opens on Friday 30th January to 25 April, open Tue to Sat, 10am - 6pm, Admission free. Find Cecil Sharp House at 2 Regents Park Road, NW1.
