The main City concert venues are the Y Theatre, Phoenix Arts Centre, Leicester Guildhall, De Montfort Hall and Loughborough Town Hall.
If you are seeking out folk clubs with guests then have a look at the Musician (Leicester), the Pack Horse (Loughborough), Bingham, Grand Union (Barrow), Naseby Square (Market Harborough), National Forest (Moira), Scrag End (Oakthorpe), Styvechale (Coventry), Folk at the Swan (Bedworth), the Tump (Brinklow) and Swan Folk (loughborough). There are free 'daytime' guest venues in Leicester at Cafe Folk (Phoenix Arts Centre, Saturday), the Criterion (Saturday) and the Richard Attenborough Centre (RAC - Tuesday and Thursday during term-time).
For singarounds or sessions try Barrowden, Bingham, Coventry, Denbigh Arms, Dunton Bassett (confusingly at the Red Admiral, Broughton Astley), Grand Union (Barrow), Gretton, Scrag End (Oakthorpe) or the Pack Horse (Loughborough).
Irish based sessions are more nomadic. Try John Patterson's web page at http://freespace.virgin.net/jd.patterson1938/irishmusv.htm. For those more interested in singer/songwriters (with PA) seek out the 'Acoustic clubs' at the Musician, White House, Loughborough and Harborough. For World Music check out Farside at the Y Theatre. To learn the ropes as singer/musician try out the workshops at the White Horse (seagrave) or the South Leicester Folk Workshop (Bull's Head, Lutterworth).
Looking slightly over the border a visit to Black Diamond (Birmigham), Brew Town (Burton on Trent), Carrington (Nottingham), Derby Gaol, Robin Hood (Nottingham), Tiger (Nottingham) or the Great Knight (Northampton) can all be recommended.
Festivals include the National Forest Folk Festival in June; Heather near Ashby de la Zouch in July and the Acoustic Avalon guitar show at Leicester Racecourse in November. The next Loughborough Festival is scheduled for 7th to 9th March 2008. Morris and related teams are numerous and diverse. At least fifteen teams dance in different styles, seven Cotswold, three Border and two NW in addition to clog dancing and mummers. Two teams perform different dances in the Winter (Border and Molly) and one team only appears around Plough Monday.
To get details of above you'll need to look at the web-sites or obtain one of the local publications. There are two main web-sites for the area. The LFD (Leicester Folk Diary) concentrates on folk song and music sessions in Leicestershire. In addition to the web pages, the diary is printed on a quarterly basis. Sounds Alive incorporates events from LFD alongside other musical genres. On a six-monthly basis the Leicestershire & Rutland District Folk Committee produce a dance diary covering social dance clubs and traditional dance sides. The Leicester Mercury includes a daily summary of music events with a weekly pullout on Thursday. De Montfort Hall, Phoenix Arts Centre and the Richard Attenborough Centre produce their own publicity magazines covering music of all styles. On a Monday night there's a couple of hours of folk song/music, including diaries of local events, on BBC local radios Derby, Leicester and Nottingham.
Folklore of the area is described in Roy Palmer's "The Folklore of Leicestershire and Rutland". Tales and legends abound and ancient sites are scattered across the county. At the Selling of the Wether, you would have been able to a bid for the crop off a piece of land given by John O' Gaunt. The Rose & Crown, Leicester, paid its annual peppercorn rent of a penny and a Damask Rose. Whilst these are in abeyance, one custom that is most certainly alive and well is Hallaton Hare Pie Scramble and Bottle Kicking. Held on Easter Monday, the Bottle Kicking is a contest between Hallaton and its neighbour Medbourne. Three barrels are fought over and the victors have the glory and the beer contained within one of the barrels. The Hare pie is distributed in front of the church and up on the field of combat. A fine example of a traditional "Ball Game" is Hallaton and there is no place for the feint hearted in the fray. Plough plays have been collected in the Vale of Belvoir and its environs. The Sproxton Play was collected by members of Leicester Morrismen some five decades ago and is still performed by them today.
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