Ceilidhs – Your chance to dance!
Come and have a dance at a BunkFest Mega Ceilidh! If you’re tapping your feet after watching dance displays round town, you’re in luck! Our Mega Ceilidhs at the Sports Park will have you whirling and twirling and dancing the night away! All BunkFest ceilidhs will use non-gendered calling, and everyone is welcome!
This year we’d like to ask adult ceilidh-goers for a suggested donation of £5. Please give generously to ensure BunkFest can keep putting on our wonderful events!
Friday 8:00pm – 10:30pm
BunkFest Mega Ceilidh with Melobo and caller Jane Bird and a spot from Wallingford Morris
Melobo is a ceilidh Band based in Wantage, Oxfordshire, playing energetic English, Celtic, American and French music, and comprises Graham Hubbard (melodeon & fiddle), Charlotte Pascoe (oboe, recorder & small pipes) and Howard Hill (bass & guitar). This review says it all “Melobo played for the premier evening of our new ceilidh series. Their impeccable musicianship, earworm tunes and positivity, steered the evening to a resounding success. They left us with a big smile and the desire to never stop dancing. They are at the top of their game.
Jane Bird calls traditional English dances and modern ceilidh classics with a clear, confident style, enthusiasm, humour and a real love for sharing dances with everyone.
Saturday 8:00pm –10:30pm
BunkFest Mega Ceilidh with Panjandrum and caller Gordon Potts with a display from New Esperance Morris
Earworms are Panjandrum’s speciality; eclectic melodies from all over Britain, Europe and Scandinavia as well as some self penned gems, all kicked into shape for e-ceilidh dances. With a stellar lineup featuring Ian Dedic on melodeons / electric bass, Hilda Dedic on saxophones / concertina, Mary-Jo Searle on recorders / pipe & tabor / fiddle, Diane Moody on fiddles / electric bass / percussion, and Gordon Potts on guitars and as resident caller – Gordon called the very first BunkFest ceilidhs way back when so it’s a delight to welcome him back!
Panjandrum have played at many ceilidh series and dances at festivals, both in this incarnation and in previous years as part of The Committee Band. Everyone in the band has been a dancer and/or dance teacher so they really know how to fit a good tune to a good dance. Basically, they are a bunch of multi-instrumentalist habitual tune hunters who can’t hear a good tune without thinking about how to harmonise it and lift the tune off the printed page to breathe life into it. Come to the ceilidh, you won’t be able to keep your feet still even if you’re not dancing!