The show season looms!

The 2015 show season is about to start in earnest! Dartmoor Magazine has a pretty packed programme this summer: do come and say hello if you happen to be passing. It’s Dartmoor Folk Festival (www.dartmoorfolkfestival.org.uk)at South Zeal this coming weekend (we’ll be in the Crafts Marquee on Saturday and Sunday), a wonderful time of traditional music, singing and dance in a beautiful setting. Next we’re taking the gazebo to Harrowbeer 1940s Weekend on 15 and 16 August: a must for anyone interested in military history and a spot of World War II nostalgia.

Great Western Morris dancing outside the Kings Arms, South Zeal

On 20 August we’ll be in the gazebo at the popular and long-standing Chagford Show, on 29 August (a new one for us) at Sampford Spiney and Walkhampton Sheepdog Trials (a good chance to get some photos to support an article on the subject commissioned for 2016), and on 5 September at the Nourish Festival in Bovey Tracey. And finally we’ll be at good old Widecombe Fair on Tuesday 8 September, where I always particularly enjoy visiting the local produce tent…

… as well as watching the livestock classes, of course!

Last weekend I caught sight of South Zeal’s Tinners Morris on an away day at Sidmouth Folk Festival: no doubt brushing up their skills on the seafront before coming back to the Dartmoor this weekend! Sidmouth was awash with music and colour and sunshine: a wonderful place to while away a Sunday in festival season.

Tinners Morris at Sidmouth Folk Festival