Walton Folk Festival
Wednesday 11th September, until November.

Walton used to hold an annual weekend folk festival in the town between 1987 and 2005. The Walton Folk Festival was a weekend of dancing and singing for all the family. There were workshops to teach folk traditions, musicians playing in pubs throughout the town, craft fairs, barn dances, theatre and performances at venues throughout the town, plus a torchlit procession
at twilight.

The idea for the Walton Folk Festival evolved from an English Folk Dance and Song Society meeting held in the town. The weekend of music and Morris Dance was held annually in September and in 1987 up to 200 dancers came to camp in Walton. The strong interest in traditional folk dance and music in Essex and Suffolk meant there was a lot of local support and talent fora local festival.

The Royal Marine pub on Old Pier Street had always been the epicentre of all things folk in the town and during the festivals it hosted many local and visiting musicians. In addition folk musicians played across the town in venues including: The Naze Mariner, The Royal Albion, The Victory, The Walton Tavern, The Pier and The Amphitheatre. They hosted acts such as The Yetties, Blowzabella, Flook, Dick Miles, The Albion Band, Jake Thackray, The Strawbs, The Oyster Band, The Levellers and well loved local musicians The Onion Band. Many revered musicians from the folk world rubbed shoulders with raw amateurs in sessions that could drift into the small hours.

The Walton Folk Festival featured many folk dancers, dancing Cotswold Morris, Border Morris, Clog Dancing , Molly Dancing and even Broom dances. Morris Sides from across the region danced in the streets of Walton joining local groups such as Royal Marine Morris that had developed from Knock Deep Morris, Harwich Morris Men, Rising Larks, Mandrake Morris, The Equitable Pioneers, and the Soken Molly Gang, for Morris displays outside of The Victory Pub in Suffolk Street accompanied by live music.

Liz Bruce was the founder of Mandrake Morris, a Walton group of Clog Dancers. The Mandrakes were a flamboyant dance group wearing long bottle green stockings and white petticoats and carrying red and white flower garlands of silk flowers. Liz Bruce became the dance coordinators for the Walton Folk Festival which was run over the years by a committee which was chaired in the formative years by Wendy Ann Simon..

Wendy Ann Simon danced with Mandrake and later formed another local side called The Equitable Pioneers, who danced Northwest Morris, also a Clog Morris with links to the broader folk festival scene recreating an older style of dance.

Harwich Morris Men were a much respected Morris Ring side that danced extensively during the summer. The Rising Larks comprised mainly of the wives of the men in Harwich Morris. After years dancing with Royal Marine Morris and Harwich Morris, Malcolm Batty decided to explore the East Anglian tradition of Molly dancing and in 1999 formed the Soken Molly Gang. Their exuberant and irreverent style of dance was appreciated at local venues as well as folk festivals around the country.

The Walton Folk Festival developed into a popular and highly regarded fixture in the folk festival community attracting musicians and dancers from across the UK and internationally.

The Nose Bookshop will have an exhibition about the Walton Folk Festival in its project space this Autumn. The display of Folk Festival material is supported by The Frinton and Walton Heritage Trust (whose archivist is Liz Bruce), and the personal collections of Malcolm Batty, Liz Bruce and Wendy Ann Simon.

Displays will include photographs of the folk dancers in the Walton streets over the years and costumes worn by the Mandrake Morris Side and their hoops and garlands. Photographs of musicians playing in the pubs and gardens during the festival. Printed merchandise from the festival including a set of festival programmes, posters, tickets and t-shirts. There will be sounds from the festival including an audio tape of the local musicians recorded as a fundraiser for the festival.

The Walton Folk Festival exhibition will lead up to the new Walton Arts Festival ‘Between the Tides’ taking place over the weekend of the 20th-22^nd of September 2024. The new local arts festival will include some folk music and dance at The Nose bookshop with a Broom Dance on Newgate Street on Sunday 22nd September. If you’d like to learn how to do a broom dance come to the workshop at the Emmanuel Church on Saturday 31st August. 

Broom dance competition
Between the Tides, Walton Arts Festival
3.30pm Outside the front to The Nose (new time)

Broom Dances are traditional folk dances popular in East Anglia. Broom dances can include stepping along, around, as well as balancing the broom on the hand or head, swings and spins, throws of leg over the broom, and percussing. Come along to this informal and friendly competition and show off your broom dance skills! Bring a Broom (we have a few extra too).