SCHEDULE for MAY 25 - June 2, 2006
Henry (A Yank who now lives half of each year in England) and Jacqui (A Limey who now lives half of each year in America) will be your host & hostess throughout this trip.
What I am about to outline is the basic structure of the eight night trip. This trip is slightly different from all our previous "Yanks Meet Limeys" trips (for photos of previous trips, see 2001, 2003, 2005 and Chippenham Festival)
All our previous trips started with a week of touring and ended with the Chippenham Folk Festival, after which, people flew home. This year's trip begins with the Chippenham Folk Festival Weekend. Tuesday morning, after the Festival is over, we will all transfer to Halsway Manor for three days of mainly contra dancing to "Bag O' Tricks" with Henry Morgenstein calling.
For information on Halsway Manor see: <www.halswaymanor.co.uk/>
We expect most of you will fly out of the U.S. on Wednesday night May 24th & arrive at Gatwick or Heathrow, London, Thursday morning May 25th. However, many people on our last tour came earlier or left later. Scheduling the flight is up to you, but for those of you who arrive Thursday morning, May 25th, we will schedule a pick-up to take you directly to the Angel Hotel in Chippenham. (If some of you arrive very early in the morning, you may have to wait a couple of hours for others who are sharing the cab, or minibus, with you).
Thursday, May 25. Pickup from airports. Check-in to the Angel Hotel, Chippenham. Dinner at "Revolutions" Restaurant in Chippenham. EVENING: Last year, the third time we ran our "Pre-Chippenham Dress Up Ball," attendance was so high that the hall felt a little crowded. This coming year we will hold our "Pre-Chippenham Ball" in the Neald Hall, a larger hall just next door to the Town Hall. (You can see pictures of previous "Pre-Chippenham Balls" here: 2001, 2003, 2005 .) You are not expected to wear "Period attire" (though most of the locals will) but something smart might be appropriate.
Friday May 26. (The following is one possibility -- it is what we did in previous years -- but we may declare Friday a day of "Rest & Recovery") We will visit Bath, home of Roman Baths, the Pump Room, The Circle, The Crescent. Bath claims to be one of the most visited places in the world. To give you yet another "British experience" we will go there by train (round trip ticket supplied by us). Once there we will go on a guided tour and then you can wander around on your own, taking the train back to Chippenham at your leisure.
Friday night May 26. through Tuesday morning May 30 you will be a part of Chippenham Folk Festival, one of the best Folk Festivals in all of Britain <www.chippfolk.co.uk/>. For the 2006 Chippenham Folk Festival Weekend they have already hired Lisa Greenleaf, from the East Coast of the USA, and Bag O' Tricks, from the West Coast. In addition, they have also hired our absolute favorite British Caller, a headliner at our Between the Bays Dance Week in the UK: Ian Jones. (See <henryandjacqui.com/btb/BtB2005/2005.htm>) Talk to anyone(!) who attended our dance week; Ian Jones was a smash hit.
Chippenham Folk Festival will offer contra sessions every day and contra dances several evenings, but that is only a small part, a very small part, of what Chippenham has to offer. Before noon on the first Saturday of the Festival, you can choose any one of 25 workshops. Another 32 workshops are available between noon and 5p.m. What kind of workshops? ECD (Social Dance), Rapper, Squares, Playford, Irish Sets, Clogging, Circus skills, Junior Macrame, Concertina, Border Morris, Song Shop, Fiddle Workshops, Contra Dancing, Irish Music, Riverside Ceilidh, Story Telling. I cant possibly list all the workshops, but clearly there is something for everyone - and I havent even mentioned the pub sessions for musicians & for singers, the concerts and the dance displays in the Arena and around the town.
At Chippenham the standard of dancing is high, the callers are among the best in England, and the bands are from England, the Continent and, this year, from the USA, Lisa Greenleaf & Bag O' Tricks. No dance camp in America can match the variety of dance forms offered. The whole operation dwarfs almost any weekend in America. The Festival takes over the whole town.
I could go on and on about Chippenham. Clearly a great deal is there to do. You can spectate, you can dance, you can learn to play an instrument, you can join a singers or a musicians jam. You can watch Morris Dancers all weekend; you can shop for instruments and clothing; you can swim in the pool (there is even a dance in the pool: an "Aqueilidh"); you can dance until past midnight.
Chippenham is a very small town. We want all of you to be housed in town so you can walk to all events & retire to your lodging in between - if you wish. The Angel Hotel will give you breakfast but once you get to Chippenham you are on your own for lunch & dinner. There are many restaurants in town and there is an "on-site" food tent ("Chez Nous") which serves good, inexpensive food. In the past, we have eaten all our meals there and made many friends at their long tables.
Tuesday May 30. We leave the Angel Hotel in Chippenham and travel (11/2 - 2 hours) to Halsway Manor in Somerset, near Exmoor, for three nights of dancing, two days of workshops. Food & Lodging provided. Band: Bag O' Tricks. Callers: Henry (Contra) & Jacqui (Irish Sets) Morgenstein.
Halsway Manor is much smaller than what we would think of as its counterpart: Pinewoods. It is an old manor house complete with all the historical features you would expect (oak beams, open fireplace in the lounge, landscaped gardens...) We will limit attendance at this three night, two day dance-function to under 50 people (Halsway can sleep 70) -- the number that can comfortably dance in the one large dance hall available. Our group (up-to twenty people) is guaranteed en-suite rooms.
Flyers-Brochures will be created for this dance event, but these will be distributed primarily in England & in Europe. The basic structure will be the one you find at all American Dance weekends: morning & afternoon workshops followed by evening dances. Theme :"Contra Dancing: The Next Level." (How to be a better contra dance partner; how to smoothly execute some less common moves eg Rory O'Moore; how to embellish without impeding the flow of the dance...). Jacqui will teach one Irish Set on Wednesday, and another on Thursday (to CDs).
Friday June 2. Leave Halsway Manor early in the morning to travel, by private Coach, to Heathrow & Gatwick for flight back to the U.S.A.
BUT-BUT-BUT
We are considering several possible extensions to what is, for some of you, too short a stay in a country you have already paid air fare to visit. The exact nature of the extension will be negotiated with those of you who are interested in extending your stay.
All the "add-on" extensions are roughly three days in length -- either before the trip begins (Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday) or after the trip ends (Friday-Saturday-Sunday).
Option 1. The one I find most intriguing is three (or more) days in Bath, which is only a few miles away from Chippenham. Their Annual International Music Festival (see: www.bathmusicfest.org.uk) begins the weekend before the Chippenham Folk Festival weekend and ends the weekend after the Chippenham Folk Festival. On that second weekend, Bath also hosts a "Fringe Festival" (see: www.bathfringe.co.uk).
We've located two wonderful hotels in Bath. Except for an introductory two-hour long guided tour of Bath (Sulis Guides -- included in cost of trip), you would be on your own to visit whatever part of bath or the International Music Festival you wanted to visit.
Long ago Bath advertised itself as the town more tourists visit than any other town in the world. That is perhaps no longer true, but Bath is a truly worthy tourist destination. Within a few feet of each other are Roman ruins, a stunning 13th Century Church and the gorgeous 18th century Pump Room.
We are considering two other possible "ADD-ON" options:
Option 2: A three day stay (Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday before Chippenham) in Oxford. In each of our three previous Yanks Meet Limeys Tours we visited Oxford for one day. It was nowhere near enough time to savor what is a spectacular town, one of the greatest of all the world's "University Towns."
At least part of a day of our three day stay in Oxford would be devoted to a journey to Blenheim Palace nearby. Many-many years ago I spent one day at Blenheim Palace: I've never forgotten the experience. Wednesday during the day we can try to repeat the most memorable day we ever spent in Oxford: on the upper deck of a boathouse, sipping beer, watching eight-oared-boats race by just yards away on the river. Wednesday night, our last night in Oxford, we will join the Stonesfield Folk Club Dance.
Option 3 : A three day stay (Friday, Saturday & Sunday after Halsway) in Winchester, at the Wykeham Arms Hotel -- a wonderful old-world inn we have used in each of our three previous trips. Winchester, a beautiful little city with many charming shops & a stunning Cathedral, was the capital of England for hundreds of years before London became the capital in the 15th century. We will take a tour to the top of Winchester Cathedral (In previous years we climbed to the top of Salisbury Cathedral -- see pictures on this web site: 2001, 2003).
Saturday night we might go to the contra dance in Guildford (35 miles away). Sunday night we will definitely go to the Contra dance at The Millenium Memorial Hall in Littleton just outside Winchester. This hall is our "local" hall. Every Yanks-Limeys tour we hold a dance in this hall, and unfailingly, it has been the best dance of the tour.
We live in Southampton, only 15 miles away, and many of our local & far flung contra-dance friends come to the dances at Millenium Memorial Hall. (In the background I hear my wife Jacqui saying: "Isn't it funny how certain halls have a great atmosphere?"). This little hall (holds 80) charms you when you walk in. The doors on one side of the hall open up to a green field which contains the village cricket pitch. We love this hall, we always have fun dancing there.