We hope all our friends and supporters are safe and well.
Folk Week has had a challenging year, like everybody else.
With the publication of the government’s planned road map out of the pandemic, there has been a wave of anticipation about this year’s Folk Week and it’s very encouraging that there are so many people out there eager to return to Broadstairs.
As most of you know, it is a year- round task to organise the festival and circumstances are very different to previous years. Our major concern is the safety of our festival goers and that will influence our decisions on the format of Folk Week in 2021. We are communicating with the Events team at Thanet District Council as many sites we may use are operated by them and they need to be confident in our plans.
Folk Week is also waiting for news of various funding applications, including the Arts Council Cultural Recovery Fund. We are a registered charity that does not make a profit but brings enormous economic benefit to the town and we sincerely hope that we will be able to go ahead in 2021.
We are hoping to be in a better place to give details of our plans by the end of March at the latest. It is true that we are being cautious, so we want to be flexible enough so if the planned government road map stalls, then Folk Week will still have options.
What is certain is that we will need the support of our Friends, festival goers, local authorities and the business community to make Folk Week happen. Our team of volunteers, including the Folk Week committee have continued to work together throughout the past year to help keep the festival alive and we hope that this will be the year that even more people are motivated to join us in organising this amazing event.
So, sorry we can’t give any more details other than that we are keeping 6 -13th August as the proposed dates for Folk Week 2021 and as soon as we can give you more news, we will. Watch this space!