May Heydays at Evesham:
Feedback

Excellent weekend!

I’m currently trying to exit the camping field at 0830 on Monday, but not sure when the gates will be unlocked. I’ve spent a long time looking without success for a phone number for someone to contact to find out when the gates will be unlocked.

In an emergency shouldn’t there be a phone number to contact if an ambulance or other vehicle needs to get in at night?

Thanks for a superb weekend, Keith

Wonderful Weekend with great callers and fabulous bands. I would love for there to be enough herbal teas to last the whole weekend, some of us don't drink black tea.
Many thanks for all your hard work!

Great festival. So well organised and enjoyable. Thank you for all your hard work.
I would like to comment on the lanyards . Unfortunately l could not read the names on the lanyards.
Script has to be big for just the Christian name please. I would like to call some people by their first name and don't need their surname.
Thank you Ursula

This was my first folk festival & I found the whole thing absolutely amazing & so much fun.The workshops were brilliant. I was particularly in to American dancing & squares.Geoff Cubitt was my favourite caller. He was amusing but clear & anything he was involved in I wanted to be there.
I also enjoyed the waltz workshop with John Sweeney & 'Keeping Thyme'.
The Becket workshop with Contra Sutra were also good. I have to say....what a band!
The food was good, the parking adequate & the whole weekend was an absolute success for me. The only criticism......some of the American dances were a trifle long. I have to admit to breathing a sigh of relief when some of them ended but to be fair I am not an old timer.
Most of all the things I enjoyed the most was the people who attended. I seemed to make so many friends & look forward to seeing these people again when I attend my next adventure.

Thanks to Mecki and Monty for another great weekend! The callers, musicians and workshops that we experienced were all fabulous.

Thanks for all your had work in making it run smoothly.
John & Karen

Thank you so much for a wonderful, friendly festival, which seemed to work very smoothly after all the hard work you had put in. It was good to have two Playford Balls, giving more choice. I especially enjoyed discovering the introductions to other forms of dancing apart from American and English, and being able to sit in and watch not only the Renaissance display (and I regretted missing the Gog Magog display but were glad they popped in to Playford Ball 2!) but also to watch and have a tentative try in the French bal (good to use the late afternoon break for that) and the swing dance. I would not have minded being locked in for another week to continue dancing!

thank you all very much for a great festival. Well outside my comfort zone but I enjoyed learning quite a few dances and I particularly liked the french singing workshop. Angie and I both liked the International dances and loved the Bal and the great band. Finding the mens' showers was quite challenging initially. Maybe some clearer signing will help. Thank you for all your hard work in organising this enjoyable weekend.

A lovely weekend, well organised, with a high standard of calling, music, and dancing. Timetable of events was great - not rushed with useful gaps. New venue AOK. Some DIY tea and coffee all day would be great, especially for indoor campers (not us!) Cheap loo brushes required (in men’s). Contactless payment if possible next year. Names on both sides of lanyard tags?
Looking forward to next year!

Well done! Enjoyed the weekend immensely. Could have done with at least one more English/Playford-style evening, though, because apart from Sunday the evening dances were either mixed or pure American, but I daresay you will be doing that next year anyway, and I understand that planning was difficult this year.

I enjoyed all the workshops and dances I attended - clear calling and lovely music at all. I'm not a singer or musician and thought the story telling was a good addition to the programme. The camping worked well for me; it was good to be on grass and well spaced. The refreshments and drinks arrangements need a little tweaking but I'm sure they are working that out themselves. It was good to be able to self serve tea and coffee. I agree the timing of the timetable worked well. I was happy with the new venue and look forward to next year.

Nice location - rooms easily found and spacious. Wonderful callers and bands. Plenty of parking. Pre-event information and admin was also good. The only negative comments we have are about the food. Twice we ate around 6.15 and the food was not good - it was cool and very dry.
Apart from that we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and plan to return next year.
Thank you to the organisers and stewards.

Great weekend thoroughly enjoyed it. Intend to return next year.
My only criticism is that there was not enough cross ventilation in the halls. May I suggest a C02 monitor for next year. I have taken 2 LFT today and am covid positive on both tests, please test yourself before you see anyone particularly the vulnerable.

It was so well organised, venues were well used, I enjoyed giving my time to steward the Dance studio every day, the choice of dances to attend were well described on the listings and thank you to the bands that bought their cd's for sale and helping Monty remove notices and info charts,
My only frustration was we stayed on the Monday evening hoping to leave before 8am, but gate from field to empty toilets and waste water was unavailable when school was about to start up, the caretaker mowed the field and said we would be able leave between 9-9.15am

Excellent weekend.  Thanks to all involved, and for your perseverance through this difficult last couple of years.
New venue very good in many respects, dance venues good (particularly the dance studio).  Camping good and convenient, lots of space and level. Much better location being more central.
Programming will always suit some more than others, but standard was high and a good selection of choices.  We would echo Frances's comment about having at least one more English/Playford-style evening. A top rate caller for English, equivalent to Joanna this year, would be good.
We enjoyed the dance competition all morning, great fun, could have done with a short break for a hot drink though.
One minor point.  It was good to have overnight loos available for those of us camping, but we would have appreciated them getting a basic clean over the weekend - as someone else said, at least a cheap loo brush would help.
We intend to be back next year.

Thank you for a very enjoyable weekend.
Workshops were good, the music was good and there was a great atmosphere.
Maybe there could be a better arrangement for getting teas and coffees as, this time, the queues were very slow.
The catering staff served us very efficiently and there was a good choice of food.
The was good and the gaps between the events gave time to collect our thoughts and get refreshed!
The venue seemed to work well and the dance events were not over-crowded.
Many thanks to everyone involved and I look forward to next year.

Would echo all the positive comments so far, and particularly appreciated having Joanna Reiner here for ECD. More trivially, the check-in arrangements were very easy and quick, and the organisers made an excellent job of keeping any necessary announcements brief - and often entertaining.

Excellent festival. Two comments: Please move the Scottish dancing to the adjacent room. This year the first Scottish session on a solid floor was so painful that I couldn’t continue with the following session. The adjacent room has a floor with ‘give’.
Secondly, on the first evening the choice was American or mixed, Please could it be American or English?

Well done and thank you to all who planned, performed, or contributed to this excellent weekend! The venue generally, along with the facilities for us caravanners/campers, were all very good. Timings seemed just right. We'd also like names on both sides of tags.
Just one suggestion for callers - when walking longways dances, there were a few occasions when a second walkthrough was done with neutrals at both ends of all the longways sets in the room. If a second walkthrough is deemed necessary, and there were no neutrals originally, perhaps the caller could ask for "one more progression" before the second time.

Firstly I want to echo Mike Courthold's comments on Monday afternoon - thank you Mecki and the committee for your persistence in the face of so many adversities in bringing off the festival. So many others in your position would have given up at the first hurdle. We are in awe of your resilience. You have managed to bring the essence of Eastbourne festival (even down to the sea gulls over our van on Sunday morning!) to a new location and better venue and it has already developed a character of it's own. As performers we were well looked after by yourselves and particularly the stewards. Camping on site gives the festival an altogether feel as does having all events on one site.
I particularly want to thank Charley, Bill and Gareth - the sound engineers. They take away all the stress and physical effort of providing PA and worrying about getting the sound right, which allows us as a band to concentrate on playing for the dancers. They are all folk musicians themselves (and really nice people but don't tell them I said that!) and understand what is needed for an enjoyable experience for band, caller and dancers.
They contribute a huge amount to the enjoyment of each dance you went to.
The few teething problems of starting out with a new venue seem solvable and I know there is plenty more dance space available.
We are looking forward to next year.👏👏