Fire in the Mountain Festival

The Trad Academy is proud to have run the workshop yurt at Fire in the Mountain Festival in Wales for the last three years.  The festival is a wonderful coming together of people who share an interest in making music, dance, song and having a really great party.

Pete Truin with the massive Sea Shanty choir at FitM 2014

Pete Truin with the massive Sea Shanty choir at FitM 2014

The workshops all take place in the Trad Academy’s Workshop yurt which is located in the dingley dell, at the bottom of the hill in a beautiful valley next to a babbling brook.  There’s no electricity down there but this is never a problem as we always have more than enough talented musicians to play live acoustic music for the dance and singing workshops.  If you want to know what it’s like to enjoyed dancing to music the way people did for hundreds of years before electronic amplification there’s no beautiful place to do it than at this wonderful festival.

Ed Hicks outside the first Trad Academy workshop yurt at FiTM 2012

Ed Hicks outside the first Trad Academy workshop yurt at FiTM 2012

In previous years the Trad Academy has programmed workshops on…

Old Time Guitar, Singing (choir in the mountain), Appalachian Flat Foot Dancing (beginners), 5-string Banjo (Old time/clawhammer), Tenor Banjo/Mandolin/Bouzouki, Accordion, Advanced Clawhammer Banjo, Irish Fiddle, Klezmer tunes for all instruments, Welsh tunes for fiddle, Ham-boning (body percussion), Playford Dance, Folk Dance Tunes, English Step Dancing, Jazz Improvisation, Old Time String Band, Flat Foot Dancing, Bones playing, Ukulele, Gypsy Swing Jazz, Partner Dancing, English Tunes, English Step Dancing, A Jig and a Reel, Sea Shanties, Make a Mummers Play, Old Time Fiddle, Squeeze Boxes, Square Dancing, Mandolin, Scottish Dancing.

Check out the Fire in Mountain 2014 promo video below for lovely scenes of people flat-footing, singing and dancing down in the yurt. There’s also some nice photos from this year’s festival…

Fire In The Mountain Festival Promo 2014 from donshades on Vimeo.

 

Sammy Lind leading the old time fiddle workshop at FiTM 2014

Sammy Lind of the Fog Horn String Band (USA) leading the old time fiddle workshop at FiTM 2014

Aaron Jonah Lewis teaching Old Time Banjo at FiTM 2014

Aaron Jonah Lewis (USA) teaching Old Time Banjo at FiTM 2014

Alice Cade and Jo Bowis teaching flatfoot dancing at FiTM 2014

Alice Cade and Jo Bowis teaching flatfoot dancing at FiTM 2014

The step dancing boards early in the morning are lonely without dancers on them!

The step dancing boards early in the morning are lonely without dancers on them!

Adam Hurt (USA) teaching old time banjo inside the yurt at FiTM 2013

Adam Hurt (USA) teaching old time banjo inside the yurt at FiTM 2013

Andy Queltch leads an Old Time Guitar workshop with Emily Smith on fiddle at FiTM 2012

Andy Queltch leads an Old Time Guitar workshop with Emily Smith on fiddle at FiTM 2012