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Registration closes at Midnight Wed 13th June
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Registration closes at Midnight Wed 13th June
Click here for Last chance to register today
Back for its magnificent
SEVENTH
glorious year
BlokeFest RETURNS
Friday 15th - Sunday 17th June 2018
HOT NEWS!
This years MAN-ual released
Click here to go to find out more on the More Stuff... halfway down
This years MAN-ual released
Click here to go to find out more on the More Stuff... halfway down
About BlokeFest 2018
Over one weekend in June we will be singing like blokes, acting like men and getting to be one of the guys. BlokeFest is a festival by good Blokes for good Blokes, who like singing or think they might if only they could do it in the right way. Our guiding philosophy is that singing is a truly manly activity as long as you sing the right stuff, in the right way, with the right men: Think Shanties not shandies Lumberjack not Timberlake DiY not R’n'B. The plan is simple: We meet at a suitable venue with campsite and the weekend unfolds... |
What?
Friday Evening We organize a gathering of the Clans of Blokedom with fellas coming from the stronghold of Ashton Keynes in North, North Wiltshire, the dreaming spires of Oxford, the big Smoke of the London, Shanty Men from Ship-shape Bristol, hordes from the North and many other blokes from all points of the compass and beyond. Once gathered we will enjoy some sustenance then suitably nourished and invigorated we begin singing with the first Workshop to get us in the mood for the rest of the weekend. |
The "BlokeFest Big Top"
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Saturday
To save you catering you can subscribe to Breakfast Specials at the Blokefest Café or it is D.I.Y. to get yourself roused and nourished for the day ahead. There will be numerous singing workshops throughout the day and learning blokey songs from some well-known singing men. Keeping you going throughout the day we will break for a communal lunch time meal, then some more singing and then a returning favourite from the last couple of years, the "Elective Session", where attendees pick one of the sessions that focus on a particular aspect of singing in smaller group. And we are also seeing if we can organize the return of an Ice Cream Van, and maybe a little something more as well...! A bit more of a sing then we will assemble again for another meal before we congregate for the remarkable moment when we are entertained by the gathered throng with the world famous "BlokeFest Cabaret", where the blokes entertain each other performing song, skits and recitations, and one or two surprises this year.... |
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We end the evening with more liquid refreshment and a bit more singing in the pub and gathering around a big BlokeFest Bonfire.
Sunday
To get you going there will be Breakfast Specials at the Blokefest Café or D.I.Y. We have a Sunday Morning Singing Workshop to remember what we learned the day before and then we do some things to encourage healthy pursuits, such as the legendary "Tonsorial Titan Challenge" where we judge who is the fairest hairiest in all the land, and the testosterone engendering "Tug o' War" contest where blokes get suddenly everso politely competitive! We then plan to have our "Class of 2018" photo session with our official BlokeFest PhotographerMeister taking the one BIG BlokeFest photo of everyone resplendent in their BlokeFest T-Shirts. It is now traditional to wear your T-Shirt with pride that announces that you are part of this great bunch of blokes. And to finish off this year we are planning a BlokeFest Farewell! when we have a have a final song and break camp. Sunday lunch this year is a sort it out yourself affair either getting a pre-booked "Cricket Tea Traveler's Lunch" baguette from the BlokeFest Café, snaffling some food in the pub, or other source of sustenance before wending your merry way home, smiling all the way as you reminisce about another great event. |
The Tug o' War gets exciting
BlokeFest 2017's whiskery contenders
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BlokeFest 2018 Tickets
Full Weekend Ticket - £90 or Youth £45
Two night's camping* + Three catered Meals + Five Workshops Friday night Workshop activities + Friday evening meal + All the other workshops + Saturday Lunch AND Evening Meal + The entertainment evening + The Sunday Workshops & events + Class of 2018 Photo + Final Parting songs |
Saturday Day Only Ticket - £65 or Youth £35 *
All three Saturday workshop sessions + Saturday Lunch & Evening Meal + The evening entertainment * - We appreciate this skews things towards the Full Weekend tickets and this is intentional to encourage full participation even if it might be mathematically imbalanced!! We hope you understand the ethos we are trying to encourage. ;-) |
Why?
BlokeFest is the deranged brainchild of The Magnificent AK47, (depicted in some of their manly glory to the right) - they're the Singing Blokes of Ashton Keynes of North, North Wiltshire in the border badlands with Mid South East Gloucestershire. They’ve been singing and performing their own brand of testosterone stoked tomfoolery since 2008 and wanted to share the adventure with other men so dreamed up BlokeFest. Visit their website at themagnificentak47.com to read about their many, many adventures as they sail towards their 10th anniversary this very year. |
Who?
The Workshop Leaders
The Workshop Leaders
At BlokeFest we pride ourselves with being able to get some of the absolute top talent of the Choir Leaders and have helped many nurture their careers with our special "BlokeFest Experience" of harnessing our motley crew into beautiful harmony singing in a ridiculously short time.
Here are this year's talented bunch.
Here are this year's talented bunch.
Chris curates the Workshop Leaders and will be taking our "Friday Night Welcome to BlokeFest" workshop.
He has been one of the blokes most instrumental in making BlokeFest happen from the very beginning and must have helped hundreds of blokes to #getmensinging and is looking forward to helping many more enjoy the highlight of the summer at this year's event.
Find out more from http://www.singingwithattitude.com/ and he currently gigs with an offshoot of those Aussie blokes in the UK version A Fistful of Spookies.
He has been one of the blokes most instrumental in making BlokeFest happen from the very beginning and must have helped hundreds of blokes to #getmensinging and is looking forward to helping many more enjoy the highlight of the summer at this year's event.
Find out more from http://www.singingwithattitude.com/ and he currently gigs with an offshoot of those Aussie blokes in the UK version A Fistful of Spookies.
Craig McLeish
We are delighted to announce the return of this brilliant workshop leader. When anyone who was at BlokeFest 2016 hears the word "earworm" they will immediately think of this man... he bounded into the workshop he lead and got us to so some right daft warm up exercises then taught us the most brilliant version of a song by The Undertones, 'Over you', that was what everyone was singing to themselves on the way home, smiling all the way. |
Craig brings a fantastic level of musicianship coupled with massive amounts of energy that he combines in his more regular role as a Choir leader for kids - which makes him ideal for BlokeFest and a whole bunch of "Big Kids"! His immense repertoire ranges from being a choir boy at St Paul's Cathedral to running several community choirs in his local area.
Much more info about Craig can be found at his website https://www.craigmcleish.com and you can see him in full flow at BlokeFest 2016 on our very own video.
Much more info about Craig can be found at his website https://www.craigmcleish.com and you can see him in full flow at BlokeFest 2016 on our very own video.
Matthew Price
We are very excited to welcome a new member of the BlokeFest Workshop Leader fraternity, all the way from Newcastle. Matt fell in love with acapella folk harmony in his teens, and has since racked up more than twenty years experience of singing, teaching and arranging vocal music. A fifth-generation musician, he believes that music —and singing in particular— should be a positive, accessible experience for everyone. |
For many years he has been co-director of the midlands based youth harmony ensemble ‘Stream of Sound’ and, since gaining his Ph.D in folk music education, he now directs at the folk famous Newcastle University’s folk degree vocal group. When not working with choirs, Matt is a gigging guitarist and multi-instrumentalist across a broad range of musical genres so we are hopeful that the impromptu guitar jams that occasionally break out over the weekend will benefit from his skills!
Welcome aboard Matt!
Welcome aboard Matt!
Elective Sessions - you get to chose
A new innovation and MASSIVELY popular at BlokeFest 2015 was the introduction of "Optional Sessions" where the attendees get to chose which session they want to, er, attend, if at all.
The plan is that you will work on a piece or two that you can bond together and maybe showcase in the BlokeFest Cabaret later that evening.
A new innovation and MASSIVELY popular at BlokeFest 2015 was the introduction of "Optional Sessions" where the attendees get to chose which session they want to, er, attend, if at all.
The plan is that you will work on a piece or two that you can bond together and maybe showcase in the BlokeFest Cabaret later that evening.
Dom Stichbury
Top Chap and Fellow We are thrilled to announce the return of Dom who is a phenomenal choir leader that we welcome back from previous years when he blew us away with his dynamism from the very moment he started his first session.
Dom is a very experienced leader of Bloke Choirs running (at least two) from his base in London, the awesome Chaps Choir as well as Bellow Fellows. He is also one of the "UK Spookys" having sung and toured with the Grandfathers of BlokeSong the truly inspirational The Spooky Men's Chorale. Dom has even been on TV and featured in various newspaper articles and we delighted to have him back along with many of his men from The London. |
Dave Stewart
Top Man of the North It is with great pleasure that we welcome back Dave as one of our Workshop leaders after a gap of a few years and period of ill health.
Dave was one of our original leaders and taught us the mesmerising Myfanwy which is still part of The Magnificent AK47 top pieces for melting the hearts of ladies across the land. Dave is based in and around the Ilkley, Otley & Skipton triangle and runs many choirs himself and with other leaders on a range of top singing holidays. It all sounds like a fabulous way to spend your time! More info can be found at his Natural Voice Practioner page with links to other sites. |
Doug Watts
Riff Raff Man And a big BlokeFest Hello and welcome to Doug as he joins us for the first time..
Doug is a choir leader and voice practitioner based in Bristol. He read Music at the University of Bristol and now conducts Riff Raff Bristol on two of their group on a weekly basis. He is also involved with the Bitton Community Choir and the South Gloucestershire Carers’ Choir. He is Musical Director of Footlights Performance Academy and also runs singing workshops for numerous charities and companies all over the UK and somehow still manages to squeeze in running his very own Blokes choir The Riff Raff Pack. Welcome aboard! |
No need to worry about signing up just yet, all that happens at the event itself.
CyberSinging is coming back!
It is with immense pleasure that we welcome back composer, singer, choir leader, guitarist, Bluegrass mandoliner extraordinaire and the general all round BlokeFest Legend that is Roger Jackson.
We have been lucky enough to his presence since the very first BlokeFest when he taught us his very own composition "(Alone in my) Shed" which has been a firm favourite of The Magnificent AK47 ever since, only to be surpassed by another "BlokeFest Special", the phenomenal "Man flu". Roger's infectious enthusiasm is ideal to help nurture along whoever turns up to join this unique "for one night only" choir. More info can be found at the CyberSinging page. |
Where?
This year we are returning again to darkest mid Wiltshire camping at, and drinking in The Bruce Arms near Pewsey in the heart of Wiltshire. We will be making better use of the bar space to give more room for the singing in the pub as it was a bit of a squash in 2015 - but what a fabulous session. And a similarly brilliant session was had in 2016 so we are looking forward to another great sing. The venue for BlokeFest can be found at The Bruce Arms Easton Road Easton Royal Pewsey Wiltshire SN9 5LR We will also be coordinating a "Cycle to BlokeFest", the place is easily accessible by road and Pewsey has a rail station only a couple of miles from the pub. Phone: 01672 810216 Mobile: 07968 580804 Email: [email protected] |
The Bruce Arms, nicknamed the Gammon, is situated between the villages of Easton Royal and Milton Lilbourne near Pewsey in Wiltshire. Built between 1848 and 1855 by the Salmonach Estate, which owned many pubs. It came about after the original Coaching Inn, The Gammon of Bacon, situated opposite, burnt down. The only part of the Inn remaining is the water pump - which still works!
There is access via foot or cycle to the the glorious Pewsey Vale - Crofton Beam Engines, Wilton Windmill and the Kennet and Avon Canal. The Games Room offers Darts, Pool, Table Tennis, Skittles and even Short Mat Bowls plus of course the space for whatever we want to do and we will have our very own BlokeFest Big Top ! for the workshops and Cabaret. |
CyberSinging
No need to worry about signing up just yet, all will be revealed soon, but you can read more on the CyberSinging page.
No need to worry about signing up just yet, all will be revealed soon, but you can read more on the CyberSinging page.
In case you still need convincing, have a look at our video from BlokeFest 2016.
QUOTE UNQUOTE
“BlokeFest has always been surprisingly good fun but BlokeFest 2016 surpassed all others. It was just brilliant from start to finish. Some great pub singing, amazing workshops, quite stupendous range of talent in the Cabaret and most of all a wonderful relaxed and friendly atmosphere. And to top it all the Concert Party was just such a wonderful example of simple, heartfelt fun - can't wait till the next one, I'm smiling already thinking about it."
A very satisfied BlokeFest 2016 attendee. One of very many!
QUOTE UNQUOTE
"Speak with a man, and he becomes your friend. Sing with a man and he becomes your brother. And we have brothers all over the country."
A rather emotional and very happy BlokeFest 2016 organiser!
“BlokeFest has always been surprisingly good fun but BlokeFest 2016 surpassed all others. It was just brilliant from start to finish. Some great pub singing, amazing workshops, quite stupendous range of talent in the Cabaret and most of all a wonderful relaxed and friendly atmosphere. And to top it all the Concert Party was just such a wonderful example of simple, heartfelt fun - can't wait till the next one, I'm smiling already thinking about it."
A very satisfied BlokeFest 2016 attendee. One of very many!
QUOTE UNQUOTE
"Speak with a man, and he becomes your friend. Sing with a man and he becomes your brother. And we have brothers all over the country."
A rather emotional and very happy BlokeFest 2016 organiser!
In 2017, BlokeFest went "international" with our first trip to Wales with a hugely successful BlokeFest Cymru, featuring songs in Welsh in a fabulous setting in Anglesey where we were blessed with amazing weather as you can see from our collage
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Then nip over to the Registration page to sign up before all the places get snaffled up by others.
Just in case you still want to know more...
You can find most of the "Frequently Asked Questions" and "Occasionally Asked Awkward Questions" by clicking here.
You can find most of the "Frequently Asked Questions" and "Occasionally Asked Awkward Questions" by clicking here.