Chippenham Folk Festival is normally in late-May but this year they put on slightly over a day of events 22-23 October. No campsite was offered and most of the larger venues were not used. Tickets for events were initially only available online although at the last minute, they were made available from the box office.
I attended two dance events
Balfolk workshop and Bal
This attracted about 30 people although I was told that 60 tickets were available. It was held on the Saturday afternoon in Chippenham Town Hall, a superb upstairs room with an excellent floor. A handful of dancers arrived wearing masks and one kept hers on when dancing. Otherwise, it was very much as "normal".
It's difficult to comment on numbers because a directly comparable event didn't happen in pre-pandemic times. My feeling is that in normal times, selling all 60 tickets would have been hard - although had there, by chance, been a lack of recent similar events.it could well have happened.
Ceilidh
This got up to about 25 people on the floor at any one time although I was told that 50 tickets were available.There were maybe a dozen people sitting out. It was held on the Saturday evening in Chippenham's Constitutional Club, an OK room with a reasonable floor. I don't think I saw any masks.. Otherwise, it was very much as "normal" except there was plenty of space
It's perhaps easier to comment on numbers because fairly comparable events happened in pre-pandemic times most Saturday evenings in Autumn/Winter in England. My feeling is that in normal times, selling all 60 tickets could have been easy although permitting "turn up and pay on the door" would have made it more certain. Given the recent lack of similar events, one might have expected high demand for this event but it really wasn't there.
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