Welcome to Sark!

Hello Friends!

Welcome to the very first blog of the very first Sark Folk Festival (SFF), which will, as you know, be taking place on the beautiful and extraordinary island of Sark on 2nd-4th July 2010. We're so excited about this festival as we know it's going to be something really quite special. Sark's a place like no other- a car-free, green, craggy, sunny, breathtaking island in the English Channel that stays with people forever. Mervyn Peake wrote novels about it, Nigel Kennedy named his son in honour of it and Martin Clunes won't stop talking about it!

But even more important than the opinion of these charming men has been the reaction of you all to the idea of a festival on Sark. Since SFF's Myspace birth about three months ago, we've been delighted and amazed to hear from legions of Sark-loving folkies. We've listened in amazement to people's experiences, we've shared some of their fondest memories and we've been infected by people's excitement both about this festival and about the prospect of returning to Sark once more. I can't emphasise enough how much this has meant to us and has made us, if possible, even more committed and excited about this event. So hats off to you guys for supporting us so early on in the game. And please keep the stories coming - we never get tired of hearing them!

That's Sark. And now to Folk. We're delighted about the amazing Mary Hampton and Ruth Notman who are both confirmed to play for us next year - their music fits with Sark wonderfully and we can't wait to hear them on our own turf! We're also very pleased to have been in the Guernsey Press this week - we're on our way!

The Channel Islands have so much musical talent and recently, the Guernsey folk scene has been seized by a whole new life (if you're based in Guernsey like us, head into town to Market Square most Saturdays, or up to the Cock & Bull on Thursday night for proof!). From great young singer/ songwriters like Lydia Jane to traditional shanty singers like GU10, we've got so much to celebrate and to introduce to the world (yes, you guys are the world. No pressure).

And this is just Guernsey! We're trying to find out as much as possible about Jersey, Alderney and Sark musicians and although we've already met some fantastic Channel Island folk artists through doing this - the legendary Tom Bliss from Alderney and fantastic Jersey Bob to name just two - we're constantly aware that some elusive individuals will be slipping under the radar. Please - if you are an elusive individual,who happens to be an awesome folk singer musician please get in touch with us!

So what have we been doing recently? As it's the first Sark Folk Festival, our funds are understandably very limited. Therefore at the moment we're contacting as many Channel Island-based companies as possible in the hope of getting sponsorship and funding. We're really pleased that we've had a few encouraging words from people but we know we've got a long way to go if we want to make this festival as successful as it could be. If anyone has any good ideas for companies we can contact or if you're a potential sponsor, or even if you'd like to make a donation, we'd love to hear from you.

We're also about to kick off our fundraising in earnest. There's talk of a Christmas fundraiser which will be something pretty spectacular - if anyone
would like to play, sing or dance to help us raise some cash, please drop us a line. More of this to come in blog no.2!

I think that's it for us for now. We'll keep you updated. A very important last word though - the Sark Folk Festival committee meets roughly once a month on the Cock & Bull pub. If you're interested in getting involved in any way, please get in touch with us, we'd love to hear from you.

Till next time!

C & S