Sidmouth Folk Festival week 2011, Nick Barber's tunebook launch, folk workshops, the Anchor Inn and Radway traditional English folk tune sessions

My cunning plan for enjoying Sidmouth Folk Festival 2011 worked brilliantly! Out went the non-stop daily sessioning that left me exhausted by Tuesday and in came a much more leisurely pace where I often just wandered around Sidmouth, attended a folk music workshop, sat in the sun and talked to people for hours on end before finally hitting my favourite traditional English folk tune session in the evening. With this recipe, if only Sidmouth Folk Festival could carry on the whole year around, I think I'd be in paradise.

A particular highlight of the week was Nick Barber's fantastic 'English Selection' tune book launch which we played right the way through without stopping in the sunshine outside Sidmouth Cricket Club (photo top right). I've since played through the book again at home and they are a nice selection of tunes some of which are already popular on the traditional English tune session folk circuit and I'm sure this book will encourage others to be played more often too.

In addition to the book launch marathon tune session, Nick Barber ran free traditional English tune workshops each lunchtime during the Sidmouth Folk Festival (photo on left). Unlike most traditional English tune sessions, sight reading from tune books was encouraged with page references given out before the tune was started. I thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed and easy-going session atmosphere that Nick engendered and will certainly be going back next year to practice my sight reading skills and learn some new traditional English session tunes from him.

Favourite Sidmouth Folk Festival 2011 chilling out places included the sea front which looked wonderful in the sunshine, behind the Anchor Inn (photo right) where they were providing free entertainment comprising mummers, ceilidhs, barn dances, folk bands and, of course, the opportunity to sit in the sun, meet and chat with new friends and old whilst sipping a drink or having a bite to eat.

In the evening, the Radway Inn, Sidmouth traditional English tune sessions gave an ideal end to the day with an amazing variety of tunes being played by some incredibly expert musicians. If you like mainly English traditional tunes, this is a great festival session venue to check out.

So, will I be back to Sidmouth Folk Festival 2012? You bet I will! My only sadness is that I have to wait for so long before indulging in one of my best weeks of the year.