OKEHAMPTON folk arts charity the Wren Trust is gearing up for its ninth Baring Gould Festival of traditional music and song over the weekend of October 26-28. The Festival features national and international bands, singers and artists, and a host of westcountry artists. There will be 30 events taking place over the weekend, in a wide variety of venues in Okehampton. Alongside Wren?s team of artists, including Marilyn Tucker and Paul Wilson, piping wizard David Faulkner, mandolin ace Matt Norman, young vocalist Jackie Oates and the fiery fiddles of Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll, this year?s headliners include Dave Pegg (of Fairport Convention fame) and PJ Wright, the legendary Tyneside folk singer Louis Killen, ceilidh dance sensations Token Women, Keith Kendrick, Sos Cantores de Garteddi (Sardinian nine-voice harmony singers) and Martin and Shan Graebe. A programme of concerts will be supplemented by the Saturday Festival Feast in The Pickled Walnut restaurant, a ceilidh (folk dance), lectures in the Museum of Dartmoor Life, Morris dancing, and other fringe activities, as well as instrumental, singing, morris and dance workshops for all ages, a guided walk on Dartmoor (courtesy of Okehampton Youth Hostel?s outdoor pursuits experts), and a special steam train journey on the historic rolling stock of the Dartmoor Railway with music, song and dance. The Festival is inspired by the folk song collecting of Sabine Baring-Gould ? one of the Victorian era?s great social historical researchers, as well as novelist and hymn writer. He undertook the first serious and sustained attempt to collect the traditional songs of the English peasantry and workers, predominantly in West Devon. The full extent of his research work was only realised in 1992, when his personal manuscripts were discovered at Devon?s Killerton House, and shown to Wren Music?s directors. Wren Music is now the guardian of the Baring-Gould Archive, and offers the opportunity to delve into the archive in performances, in talks, in education, and at the Baring-Gould Folk Song School, as well as providing microfiche access for academic and casual research. The Baring-Gould Folk festival is generously supported by Arts Council England, Devon County Council, Okehampton Town Council, and West Devon Borough Council. For ticket prices and bookings log onto the website: http://www.wrenmusic.co.uk">www.wrenmusic.co.uk
