Festival Folk Club and Invitation Concert
Participation is an essential part of any festival and although Girvan has a fierce reputation for the high standard of its concerts, singing and music sessions have always been actively encouraged and subtly facilitated in various ways.
Festival Folk Club
In our 2019 festival we are introduced the idea of the Festival Folk Club. The plan is to continue this in 2020. The name on the tin gives an indication of what to expect. This will offer opportunities for floor spots, guided by a host/MC and likely to include short drop in spots from among our official Festival guests. The venues and timing for these Festival Folk Clubs will vary over the weekend and might change subject to demand. Informal Sessions will still be encouraged, but we think that the slightly more formal setting of the Festival Folk Club will appeal to both participants and listeners alike, hence the reason for introducing it to our Festival schedule.
Invitation Concert
We are planing to again include an ‘Invitation Concert’ in our Sunday afternoon schedule. Open stages are popular at some of the larger festivals but for various reasons we don’t feel that they are best suited to Girvan. Our Invitation Concert is intended to create a space for people or groups who attend the festival to be able to participate in a more formal concert setting. There will be no pre-selection of performers in advance of the festival weekend. First and foremost we expect these performers to be active participants in the festival. The idea, and it worked in the past, is for the festival organisers to keep their eyes and ears open during the Friday and Saturday and to quietly tap people on the shoulder and ask if they fancy doing a spot at the Sunday Invitation Concert. The concept is very much like that of the Folk Club where people might do a floor spot and then receive an invitation to be a guest.
Late Night Extras
As in previous years, there will also be opportunities for participation in out Late Night events.