Tradfolk: A New Chapter 

If you’re like me, the end of the summer festival season feels like a punctuation mark in the year.

Gone are the long, balmy evenings, the tunes drifting over campsites, the rowdy ceilidh tents, the tinkle of morris bells, and the crack of sticks in the late afternoon sun. I’ve just returned from Bromyard, where the trees around the site are starting to turn yellow, and the autumn chill is already in the air. Soon, it’ll be log fires, dark beers, and carols.

I’m not here to make you melancholy for summer (we’ve got help for that here); there are plenty of folk events and traditions to keep us going through the colder months. But, this month is also a punctuation mark for Tradfolk.

Firstly: a massive thank you

As you will have heard, Tradfolk founder and editor-to-date, Jon Wilks, has decided to take a step back from running the site. Jon has been nothing short of a folk force of nature in recent years, running Tradfolk alongside his full-time (non-folk) job, his family life and his touring and recording schedule. I’m sure you will agree that Tradfolk has been a breath of fresh air to the folk scene in all its weird and wacky forms, so I think we all owe massive thanks to Jon’s dedication and vision in getting it off the ground and making it a huge success.

(Incidentally, Jon is on tour and now he’s not the editor of the site anymore there’s no awkwardness about us promoting his shows and music. So: go to his shows and buy his music)

So, what next?

Well, as Jon mentioned, there is a plan in place to keep Tradfolk going; I have offered to take over as editor, which Jon has (for better or worse) agreed to.

A bit about me; I’ve been writing for the site for about two and a half years, so I know its content and quirks well. My day job is in sustainability communications at the University of Sheffield, and I’ve always been involved in writing, editing, and working with the media. I’m also part of three dance teams here in Sheffield, and I’ve been using my professional skills to help to raise the profile of folk and morris dancing in the city and beyond for a number of years.

My plan is to keep covering everything you love – album reviews, artist interviews, the weird and wacky customs, and of course, morris dancing. The site might get a bit of a tidy-up in the coming months and I’d like to develop our events listings a bit more, but Tradfolk will stay as you’ve come to know and love it.

We’re going to be doing something a bit different with the newsletter. Starting today, we’re expanding its content with more links, photos, events, and interesting bits that might not be on Tradfolk itself. Think of it as your weekly digest of folk content from across the internet. If you’re not signed up, you can do so here.

That’s probably all you need to know for now. I’d like to personally thank Jon for giving me the space to write about morris dancing, after spending years engaging (with varying degrees of success) with local and national media about it. To have a platform to be able to write freely about my hobby and passion has been both incredibly rewarding and a lot of fun.

Thanks are also due to Rachel Wilkinson, otherwise known as Tradfolk Rach. Rach has been involved in Tradfolk from the start, doing loads of writing, interviewing, socials, jig-learning and the thankless task of compiling our May Day Morris listing. I’m absolutely delighted that she still wants to be involved in Tradfolk, so you’ll be hearing more from her soon.

We’re leaving Twitter/X

Oh, and by the way, we’re leaving Twitter/X because it’s become a toxic place, and I don’t want to spend any more time there. You’ll find us on Facebook, Instagram, and maybe TikTok – if any cool kids out there want to run that for us? We also still have a YouTube channel.

And we need your help

Here’s the catch: we can’t do all of this alone. Tradfolk has always been run by a small team, and to keep it going we need more people involved.

We’re looking for folk enthusiasts to help us write, interview artists, review albums, run our social media, and edit our events listings. Mainly, we need people who are passionate about folk music and traditions to share their stories. If that sounds like you, please get in touch with examples of your writing and any ideas you have. We can’t offer payment, but we hope to offer some perks to our contributors in the future. Also, although we really value offers of editing/proof-reading assistance, we really have that bit covered. Unless lots more people start writing!

If writing’s not your thing, you can help by sharing news, events, and suggestions. But please do bear in mind we’re doing this in our free time as a hobby and we won’t be able to cover everything.

And if you enjoy our content but can’t contribute in other ways, please consider a small donation to help cover our running costs or buy the occasional t-shirt (we’re hoping to have more coming soon!).

So, that’s where we’re at, folks. We’ve created something special here, and we want to keep it going. Thanks for being part of it, and here’s to the future!

James Merryclough
Editor, Tradfolk

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