Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk Samhain Gathering

Join Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk as we celebrate Samhain at Canon Frome Court in Ledbury on Saturday October 31st.

Travel past the iron gates and through the red bricked pillars, topped with sandstone figures of a griffin's head with a bloody hand in its mouth and a talbot hound chained, resting its paw on a saltire. Continue down the long driveway that leads to the courtyard and you shall find yourself at our venue for the evening.

Our members will get you parked up then head into the main hall where you'll be greeted by folk beasts and our goblin market with stalls from:

• The Gilded Tower

• Arianwen and The Owl

• Fable.and.fern.co

• Another Realm

• Hamill Makes

• Bumblepunk

• The Soul Shack

• The Wild Goddess

• The Demetae Forge

• Hywelinc

• Small Mammoth Stone

• Tirion Manley

• Spooky Sarah Ceramics

• Kate Cornish

• Bark Ink Collective

• Hinterland Healing

• Dia_dalia_shop

• The Veggie Sheepskins

• Helygen

• Owen Thomas woodcraft

• Elemental Creations

• Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk

Tarot readings in a private room (look for the sign, if the door is shut a reading is in progres)

There is also the church housed next door to the court which has parts that date back to 1680 which you're more than welcome to wander around, it’s an ideal spot for some spooky photo opportunities.

Canon Frome Court will run a fully licensed bar throughout the event as well as teas, coffees, soft drinks and cakes.

Just before sunset we will gather in the courtyard for Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk’s performance of songs, tunes, dances (some with fire) and ceremonies celebrating Samhain.

After our performance we will return back inside where Canon Frome Court will be serving delicious hot jacket potatoes and chilli, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options to warm you up, grab some food, find a table and enjoy.

After we're all replenished with food and drink we will hold the best mask winners with a few prizes to be won!

To end the night we have a masked/guised Ceilidh in the main hall with music and song from Life of Riley, complete with their friendly caller who will give you a full explanatory walkthrough of the dances before each one. No previous experience is required! Get masked up, join in and have a blast!

What is our guised Ceilidh?

After last year’s success of asking those attending to come in folk horror outfits, which were all absolutely amazing! we’ve decided to do it again but this year mainly focusing on masks only (so you have the freedom to dance and move around), think a folk horror masquerade ball but with a Ceilidh twist.

We would love for you to bring along your own handmade folk horror masks (completely optional of course) for this masked Ceilidh to add a bit of spooky energy to the end of the night.

Side note:

Please no plastic store brought masks, focus more on biodegradable, natural materials, we want to see how creative you can all get. Remember you’ll also need to be able to move around to dance so make sure you can see through the eyes of the masks.

Timings:

1pm - Gates open to stall holders only to set up.

2:00pm – Gates open to the public (not before this time)

2:00pm – 4:15pm – Goblin Market.

4:30pm – 6:30pm – Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk Performance.

From 6:30pm onwards – Hot Food Served.

7:15pm Best Mask Winners Announced.

From 7:30pm – Life of Riley Guised Ceilidh.

11:00pm – Event Ends.

Accomodation/camping:

There are 3 guest rooms at £45 per night.

10 camping spaces at £6 a night (please remember the event will be at the end of October if you are choosing to camp in a tent)

10 camper van spaces at £10 per night (van size max 1.8 meters wide)

All overnight bookings to be made separatley from the ticket entry through Canon Frome Court by email: fromesociety@canonfromecourt.org.uk

We will also arrange a wet weather back up plan for our blackthorn performance which we can perform indoors if the weather isn’t kind to us to save us all getting wet but we hope as previous years our main performance will be outside with fire dances and fire pits.

Important information:

• This is a ticketed event, we will not be selling tickets on the gate or allowing entry to anyone without a pre brought ticket. If you plan on parking on site you must have a parking space ticket, this is so we keep to our capacity.

• Gates open at 2pm to the public and not before, the gates will then be closed at 4pm for our performance then reopened afterwards.

• Please car share or bring small vehicles to help us with parking, (no vehicles wider than 1.8 meters)

• All vehicles must be off site by 11:30pm unless you've pre booked overnight stays.

• No alcohol to be brought onto site, please support the venue.

• All children to be supervised at all times.

• No dogs allowed for this gathering as requested by Canon Frome Court.

• There will be a fire and smoke as part of our ceremonies and dance so please be aware of this.

* Disclaimer: Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk and Canon Fr

Description supplied by the event organiser.