FLEETWOOD FOLK CLUB 2ND CHARITY FOLK FESTIVAL - The Strawberry Gardens, Fleetwood

The weekend of Thursday 1st of Sept, through to Monday 5th Sept was the Fleetwood Folk Club's second charity folk festival, this year held at The Strawberry Gardens Pub and Bistro, Poulton Road, Fleetwood. Hoping to build on last year's £650 raised for the local Trinity Hospice, this was to be the turn of Fleetwood's own R N L I Lifeboat Station.

Festival Organiser ,Tony Winstanley said "We want to listen to some great music and make some money for a good cause" adding "folk music and charity are a great combination". Little did he know then how good a combination it would turn out to be.

Thursday evening's extended Folk Club meeting night got the festival underway. A weekend of folky goodness. Besides the Folk Club regulars, each with their individual styles, there were members' showcase slots, Guest artists, Bands and Shanty crews, as well as the usual singarounds and Spoken word sessions.

The weekend was brilliantly hosted by Tony him-self with assistance from Jim Smith. Mike Fairclough hosted the Saturday afternoon event on the bandstand and Mike France hosted the spoken word sessions which he said were "well attended and great entertainment value too."

The unusual thing about the weekend's entertainment is that it was all FREE, no admittance charge was asked for any of the events. All the money raised was by way of donations and bucket collections ,raffles, a "Name the RNLI teddy" competition, etc.

Monday night saw the "Survivors Night", another members and visitors event, starting with Tony's "Name that TV theme tune" quiz. He played 25 TV themes for teams to guess the programme, followed by a superb singaround. At the interval Tony and Jim informed us that with some money still to count Fleetwood Lifeboat would receive over £900. Very generously, a member of the folk club, Rob, offered to make up any difference to a round £1000!

It was a very memorable weekend, with an outcome that transcended all expectations, so very well done to all involved.

Here's to the 3rd Fleetwood Folk Club Festival next year, already earmarked on the calendar. See you there!!!

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