We welcome Shovel Dance Collective for a traditional and experimental folk performance, with support from Haress, a collective rooted in British folk but breaking genre boundaries through improvisation, texture, and amplification.

Shovel Dance Collective are simultaneously traditional and experimental; seeing folk music not as an archaeological artifact to be unearthed, but as a living communal activity. They bring together nine musicians, linked by a communal passion for the folk music of the British Isles, Ireland and beyond.

They nurture and synthesise this material with sensibilities drawn from drone, free improvisation, contemporary classical and heavy metal; weaving this through with a deep sense of the ways in which traditional music holds queer histories, proto-feminist narratives and the voices of those who, by their labour, create the wealth of the world.

The forward-thinking folk ensemble speak to Sophie Parkes from Songlines about audio adventures with Mother Thames and giving voice to the marginalised. Read more here.

This event will last approximately 2 hours, including an interval.

About Haress:

Support comes from Haress, a collective of musicians based on the border between England and Wales in the Shropshire Hills, whose music is rooted in the feel and tradition of British folk but expands out of any genre boundaries through the use of improvisation, texture and amplification. They intertwine dark and repetitive electric guitar figures to create a hypnotic, mantra-like State.