• September 24 & 25, 2022 Tales of Witchcraft and Wonder
Founded by Gloucestershire-based Inkubus Sukkubus, the Tales of Witchcraft & Wonder events have celebrated the folklore and dark folk tales of Great Britain, often more specifically Gloucestershire and the West Country, since 2016.
The first event was held at Gloucester’s historic Blackfriars Priory in September of that year, and raised £2,284 for Gloucestershire Wildlife Trust. This year’s event is a two-day affair – on Saturday, September 24th & Sunday, September 25th – to be held at and to raise funds to help preserve the Tudor buildings of The Folk of Gloucester on the city’s historic Westgate Street.
Daytime events are FREE and run from 10am-5pm on Saturday, September 24th; and 12 noon-4pm on Sunday, September 25th.
Throughout the buildings will be a series of stalls to pick up witchy supplies, books, gifts and all manner of curiosities. The Secret Garden Café will be serving hot and cold drinks and light refreshments, while the courtyard bar will keep you supplied with local ales and ciders.
Saturday and Sunday daytime
Entertainment will include:
• Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk Group from Herefordshire
• WITCH play, performed by Devon-based Circle of Spears Productions
• Witchcraft talk by Kirstie Bingham of John Moore Museum, Tewkesbury
• Music from Davey Dodds, founder member of Red Jasper and composer of the mesmeric The Magpie
featured on BBC TV’s The Detectorists
• Selling exhibition by Decadent Drawing, the wildly creative team behind Whitby Krampus Run
• Folkloric storytelling with Gloucestershire authors Kirsty Hartsiotis and Anthony Nanson
• Merrie Morgana medieval pagan dance
• Bygonz, hailing from Gloucestershire’s magical May Hill, will be performing Tudor music
• Ominous Folk of Hopeless Maine – music and story from the creators of the Hopeless, Maine graphic
novels
• Swing Rioters with their anarchic punk folk
• Cinema room showing witchcraft and dark folklore films
Saturday evening
Entertainment on the evening of Saturday, September 24th runs from 7-11pm, and will feature live music from Inkubus Sukkubus and Sproatly Smith, with Blackthorn Ritualistic Folk Group and other little surprises along the way plus, of course, a local ale and cider bar. Tickets £15.
Inkubus Sukkubus formed in Gloucestershire in 1989, writing and performing songs about witchcraft, magick, folklore, vampirism and death rites. They have toured extensively, including dates in Mexico, mainland Europe, Russia, Australia, Scandinavia and the USA, and have released 26 studio albums, including their folkloric trilogy Tales of Witchcraft & Wonder.
Sproatly Smith are a band with an air of mystery about them, steeped as they are in Herefordshire’s folklore. The band’s music draws on traditional folk music, delving into its origins, reinventing it and spinning it out into the current day, so that when listening to it you find yourself transported, as if down one of the ancient green lanes that criss-cross the county.
Blackthorn are Herefordshire’s innovative ritualistic folk group. Their members come mostly from this mysterious borderland county, home to superior ciders, excellent hops and the spiritual presence of the folklorist, Ella Mary Leather, and the ley line investigator, Alfred Watkins. Blackthorn combines ‘dark’ elements of male and female energies to gather and celebrate the Earth Cycle through the eight points of the Wheel of the Year at sacred and historical sites.
For more information, email talesofwitchcraftandwonder@gmail.com or visit thefolkofgloucester.co.uk or inkubussukkubus.org
If you are a trader, and wish to book a slot at this wonderful event, you can do so here