Folk lovers will arrive in Sheffield later this month for the festival which will be held between Feb 23rd & Feb 25th for the 2018 Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival (IVFDF)!
Programme from IVFDF Sheffield 1964
The IVDF was originally held in Leeds in 1951 and has since been recognised as the longest running folk festival in the UK. Every year the festival sets up home at a different university folk society, Sheffield first hosted the festival in 1953 and this will be the cities ninth time hosting – a record as no other city has ever done this. Around 1000 people normally descend upon the city with the vast majority of them being students – however, the event is actually open to anybody!
The event which is organised by the Ceilidih Society at the University of Sheffield will be packed with music, ceilidhs, workshops as well as performances by hundreds of morris dancers from nationwide! Pretty exciting.
This year, we’ve been informed highlights will include high-energy ceilidhs from folk outfits, the Melrose Quintet and Steamchicken as well as workshops covering anything from morris dancing to a techno morris dance performance, there really is something for everybody.
Five Rivers Morris dancing outside the Crucible in 2013 – the last time IVFDF was held in Sheffield
Chair of the organisation committee, Christopher Fish said “IVFDF is a great way for people to have a go at a whole range of folk activities at a fraction of a cost”.
The Saturday is set to be a loud yet wonderful day, the event will be brought to life with thousands of bells and morris teams from places such as Bristol and Glasgow entertaining crowds across the city. The energetic day is being arranged by Five Rivers Morris & is set to feature 14 teams from the area and from across England.
When asked about IVDF returning to Sheffield, James Merrylees of Five Rivers Morris stated “We’ve got a wealth of great morris teams here in Sheffield – more than anywhere else in the country – so we really can claim to be the city of morris!”
