We have left the pages up from our 2022 planned event so you can see the structure of our event on Saturday 2nd September 2023. It won’t be exactly the same but much of it will be along the same lines.

As of 9th September 2022 – midday:

EVENTS CANCELLED

We are very sad to say that we see no alternative but to cancel this year’s East Anglian Traditional Music Day and tonight’s evening ceilidh. Some of our key venues have made themselves unavailable due to “Royal Demise” protocols and others have still to decide their policy. We cannot see a way of producing the event without confirmed availability of key venues and have just run out of time. 

We apologise for the inevitable short notice and inconvenience caused to all ticket holders, artists and volunteers. We hope to run the same programme next year and have booked John Peel Centre for Saturday 2 September 2023. We will announce details when other key venues are confirmed.

We have been in touch with ticket holders – if you haven’t received your email/letter please check your Spam folders or see below to read your options regarding refunds/rollovers. 

TICKETS – YOU CAN NO LONGER PURCHASE ADVANCE TICKETS FOR THIS EVENT. FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT BUYING TICKETS ON THE DAY SEE HERE

Getting to, parking and staying in Stowmarket

For 2022, we will be bringing East Anglian Traditional Music Day to you from the heart of the town of Stowmarket. Expect Concerts, Workshops, Sessions, Talks, Exhibitions, Storytelling, Puppet shows, Music related stalls and Dance including Stepdancing and Morris Dancing around the town.

Some events around the town are FREE and others are ticketed (there is a choice of 18 ticketed events to go to across the day) for which we are offering a range of ticket rates: Adult full paying day ticket (10.30-6pm) £30; Friends of EATMT£25; Youth rate – 18-25 year olds £18 and any accompanying children up to the age of 17 are FREE.

There is a special rate if you book all three tickets for 9th & 10th September!

Line Up

Friday 9th Sep, 7.30pm

FRIDAY EVENING TICKETS:
Adult £12; Friend of EATMT £10; 18-25 yr olds £5; accompanying children (0-17 years) FREE

GET TICKETS

Saturday 10th September, Daytime

SATURDAY DAY TIME TIMETABLE OF EVENTS

MAP OF EVENTS

GET TICKETS!

_{DAY TIME EVENTS – 10.30-6pm}

We have a range of events – some free, some ticketed.

_{Adult ticket £30; Friend of EATMT £25; Youth 18-25 £18; Accompanying children (U18) FREE – Choose from 15 separate ticketed events to attend…}

Other Free Events

Some of this is duplicated on our other East Anglian Traditional Music Day web pages but see HERE for an overview of what you can do for free if you’re new to the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust and want to get a good taster of the musical traditions of this wonderful area of England. If you like what you see, do think about making a donation on the day. If you already know what we do, PLEASE consider buying a Friday Night Ceilidh ticket, Saturday day ticket, or Saturday evening ticket or better still, buy all 3 (you get a bargain rate if you do so!).

Stalls

Our wristband office will be set up in the Church Grounds in front of the Church of St Peter and St Mary (open from 10am) and we will be joined by a few other stall holders including Acorn Instruments, One Row Records, Veteran, Rod Ward Violins and Fiddle Daemons. More

Head of Music at our local auctioneers will be at hand to value any musical items you might be interested in selling. Michael Higginson will be on a stall between 12 noon and 2pm in the Church Grounds. The auction house runs an online music related auction monthly and 3 “musical memorabilia” auctions each year – the next one coming up is in November. For each sale made on the back of Michael’s presence at Traditional Music Day, EATMT receive a small commission.

More…

Getting about in Stowmarket on the day

We are grateful to volunteer Colin Lay and the Stowmarket Rickshaw Project (part of Communities Together East Anglia) who will be providing Rickshaw transport to the various venues across the town.

This service is free of charge but donations are positively encouraged and welcomed!

Colin will be leaving the Church Grounds at 2.30pm and heading to The Walnut for the session changeover time. There are 2 seats available for anyone that requires help getting to the Walnut for the Cambs Acoustic Collective session and 2 seats available to bring people back to the centre of town from the Walnut at the end of the Hushwing, Bristol Fashion & Friends session. Colin will be repeating this journey again at 4.30pm. In between these times, come to the pop up EATMT office and we will hail the Rickshaw for you! Priority will be given to those with mobility issues.

This service is free of charge but donations are positively encouraged and welcomed!

Ask for details on arrival at the Wristband office in the Church Grounds.

Saturday 10th September, Evening 7.30-10.30

Evening ticket Prices:

Adult ticket £20;
Friend of EATMT £18;
18-25 yr olds £15; accompanying children (0-17 years) FREE

Thanks to our venues:

The John Peel Centre for Creative Arts
The Church of St Peter’s and St Mary’s
St Peter’s Church Hall
Stowmarket Library
Stowmarket Scouts Centre
The Mix Recording Studio
The Fox Yard Studio
The Pallet Bar
The British Legion
The Walnut

And Our Artists:

Tony Hall & the Von Krapp Family Band ~
Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne ~ Belinda Kempster & Fran Foote ~ Peta Webb & Ken Hall ~ The Harbour Lights Trio

Liz Giddings & Roger Digby ~ Hushwing & Bristol Fashion & Friends including Steve Matthews & Ray Hubbard ~
Sound Tradition ~ Potiphar’s Apprentices ~ Michael Sheehy
Racker Donnelly & Emma Scarr

Justine di Mierre ~ Mossy Christian & Megan Wisdom ~ Gemma Khawaja ~ The Harbour Inn Crowd ~ The Cambs Acoustic Collective ~ Mollyhawks ~ Mr Walsh’s Wonders ~ The Twisted Willow ~ Heather Bexon ~ Jill & Meg ~ Simon Bentley ~ Pete Gosling & Sarah Sloan

Ron Ross ~ Andrew Collins ~ George Monger ~ Eileen Monger

Fiona Davies ~ Kerry Fletcher ~ Nicky Stockman ~ Erin & Barry Watson ~ Morris sides: Haughley Hoofers ~ Boudicca Morris ~ Golden Star Morris ~ AnnieMation ~ Green Dragon Morris ~ Milkmaid Molly

Talks/Exhibitions: The Story of the Blaxhall Ship ~ My Life with Harry Cox (Christopher Heppa) ~ All Aboard the Charabanc (Katie Howson) ~ Songs I collected from Harry Cox 1966-67 (Sheila Park & Peter Coleman in conversation with Alan Helsdon)

And more TBC

We are delighted to be led by Alan Bearman who is acting as Voluntary Artistic Director. Alan is well known as Artistic Director for the Sidmouth Folk Festival, as well as for his music agency Alan Bearman Music which is also an Artistic Associate of the King’s Place in London , As well as some big names, we are very keen to showcase the traditional musicians, singers and dancers of East Anglia and the wider Eastern region.

Alan has always had an interest in traditional and folk music, but when his parents moved from London to the East Coast of Suffolk just as Alan was finishing his school education, his love of specifically East Anglian Traditional Music was sparked.

We are very keen to welcome volunteer stewards for the daytime events so do get in touch via the EATMT email: info@eatmt.org.uk.

Do keep looking at this page (found via the Events – Current Events page) as we update and add more news around this day.

This event has been made possible due to the support of our Friends’ supporters, Stowmarket Town Council, Mid Suffolk District Council, Suffolk County Council via local councillor Keith Scarff and the locality budget & The Alfred Williams Charitable Trust.