Join us for an unforgettable day of music, culture, and dance. With an exciting line-up of performances, a talk, a participatory folk music session, and the legendary Queer Ceilidh Dance Party, don't miss this vibrant celebration of queer identity, history and community.
Schedule
Afternoon | Doors 1.30pm
Live performances from:
Sophie Crawford and George Sansome
Maya Kally
Vågspel
Talk from Jennifer Reid
Open folk session with Bailey and Keely
Evening | Doors 7.45pm
Queer Ceilidh Dance Party + special interval performer!
Line-up
Sophie Crawford and George Sansome are the founders of Queer Folk – an organisation dedicated to researching LGBTQIA+ history within traditional music and championing queer artists today. What began as independent curiosity evolved into a shared project after the pair discovered a surprisingly rich archive of queer folk songs: stories of queer love, gender nonconformity, and coded expression that had often been obscured or reinterpreted over time.
Performing with harmony vocals, guitar, bouzouki, and accordion, George and Sophie bring these foundational songs vividly back to life with warmth, wit, and care, revealing just how present queer voices have always been within the folk tradition.
Their debut album, Queer Folk Songs, was released in 2026 and features ten traditional queer folk songs.
Maya Kally is a multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter and composer, with Folk, Jazz, Country, and Indie influences. Having studied Jazz vocals and Classical piano at Leeds Conservatoire, Maya moved back to London, where she focused on lyricism and poetry, exploring ideas of stillness in her compositions. As a result of being ill, Maya was forced to take time away from the music industry; however, they still continued to write and record music, which has led to their most recent debut EP, A Window Left Open, released on 20th March 2026. A Window Left Open explores themes of illness, addiction, heartbreak, loneliness, the passing of time, and their interest in country music.
"Devastatingly beautiful" BBC Music Introducing
Vågspel are violinists Alice Klint and Kristin Kennemark; dance is never far away when they perform. The award-winning Nordic folk duo, with roots firmly planted in the folk music of West Sweden, play original compositions and traditional tunes, each with a unique flavour. The music moves through different landscapes, where past and present meet. Vågspel play with determination and lyricism, with harmonies and groove that can set anything in motion.
Jennifer Reid's work, rooted in archives and oral histories, braids nineteenth-century music with the present: teaching, performing, researching, sharing, advocating and supporting spaces for memory and making in the tradition.
She studied at Oxford, specialising in the ballad collections of Manchester and has shaped sound for radio, stage and screen. She is published by DIY organisations and academia. Her research has taken her from Venice to Dhaka via New York, where she asked whether the Industrial Revolution ever really ended. She’s spoken on weaving songs in Bangladesh and Manchester, worked with scientists, poets, musicians, historians and universities and still finds time to sing stories that refuse to be forgotten.
“Jennifer as a performer and writer breathes life back into these fascinating songs that vividly describe the tumultuous environment of the industrial North West. Taking their subject matter from the urban street and people the ballad effectively bridges the gap between folk and pop music as we know it today.” Jeremy Deller
For this event we have full event tickets or daytime-only tickets available. The daytime-only ticket does not include access to the evening ceilidh, only the afternoon music, talk and session.
Doors open at 1.30pm; event starts at 2pm.
Presented by Folk England.
This ticket price includes a 75p building levy.
Tags:
spring 2027
