Strings donate to charity raffle

In order to support local charities, FolkStation have given over Sunday evening of the Festival to a charity concert.  Organised this year by Smoke & Mirrors, the concert will be in aid of the Isle of Wight and Hampshire Air Ambulance.  This year there will be a raffle to raise money for the charity, and FolkStation are really pleased to announce that local music shop, Strings Guitar Centre of Ryde, are donating an acoustic guitar pack as a prize.  More details of the raffle will be published soon.

String Guitar Centre
Showrooms: 106, Monkton Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight, PO33 IJN
Phone 01983 562262
email: stringsgc@aol.com
Web Site http://www.stringsguitarcentre.com/stringshome.htm

American Supper / Jam Evening

The American supper / jam evening held on Friday 9th April at Porchfield Village Hall was a great success. About 60 FolkStation supporters attended and enjoyed a fabulous evening of music from local artists, a lovely spread of food and a jam session at the end.

A special thank you to everyone who attended, all the artists, those who helped with setting up and clearing away; you all helped to make a most enjoyable evening.

Next Buffer's Meeting

If you would like to get involved in this year's Festival please come to the next Buffers meeting which will be held at the Castle Inn, Newport at 7.30 on Tuesday 22nd June. If you can't make it to the meeting, you are very welcome to come along and join us for a pint at 9pm.

Fundraising

The 3rd FolkStation booksale held on Saturday 17th April raised £85 which will go towards setting up the craft tent at this year's Festival. There was also a music Jam session which was also very successful. Many thanks to the landlady and staff at The Stag for their hospitality and assistance in making this a very enjoyable event.

Spare Parts Concertina Band

Concertina playing workshops will be lead by Spare Parts Concertina Band. They will also be performing on stage. Click here to visit their website and sample their music.

Stewards and Helpers

If you would like to help make the Festival run smoothly, please click here for information about stewarding.

Folk2Folk Project

Funded by grants from the Cultural Games and Barnardo and supported by the Isle of Wight Council, the Folk2Folk Project will be running at Mayfield Middle School in Ryde from April to June 2010 and will involve 108 year 7 pupils.

Organised by members of the FolkStation team in conjunction with the Art Department at Mayfield Middle School, the project will introduce participants to traditional folk music through an interactive project involving movement, mask-making and art.

Click here for more information

FolkStation Buffers

A group of our friends got together recently to form a band of helpers who will organise next year's Festival. The group's train of thought about a name for the group took up quite a bit of the evening - and of course we were looking for a name with a railway theme. Some of the more printable suggestions were:

• The Sleepers - maybe accurate in some cases, but didn't seem to give the right image
• The Gantry - sounded a bit too lofty
• The Platform Staff - might confuse the actual platform staff at Havenstreet Station
• The Buffers - this seemed to be the eventual choice

The Buffers have now taken away a host of tasks that we hope will make the 2010 Festival even more enjoyable ... If you would like to get involved please call 01983 882269.