Students interact with folk music artists thanks to Alumni Annual Fund support

The Alumni Annual Fund supports projects that demonstrate that they will enhance the experience across the wider student community, benefitting current and future generations and making Exeter an even better place to live and study.

A wide range of projects are supported by the Alumni Annual Fund every year which includes student societies such as the University of Exeter’s Folk Society who received funding in 2020-21 to host a series of live online performances and Q&A sessions with folk music artists.

Founded sixty years ago, the Folk Society is one of the University of Exeter’s longest running student groups. Focused on celebrating all things Folk, the group hold music and song sessions, run dancing workshops and are the home of Pigasus, the FolkSoc Ceilidh Band. 

The live streams consisted of five virtual live performances and Q&A sessions with folk music artists Mera Royle, Ali Levack, Katherine Priddy, Jackie Oates, and Josie Duncan. The events allowed students to interact with professional artists and ask them a range of questions about performance, song writing and playing. This was immensely useful for students who are exploring a career in folk music and especially important in making up for the cancellation of live music events in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The live streams were really well received by students, as illustrated in the quotes below:

• “The various livestreams and workshops offered by FolkSocUK have allowed me to keep in touch with this community of musicians and like-minded people, especially at the moment when it's so hard to have a sense of community. I'm really happy to have this team around to take care of the behind-the-scenes business, and I can say that I thoroughly enjoy the events that they make available. More please!”
• “Benefits have been being able to produce events at a time when live music has been affected heavily by covid, so good for the musicians and the fans. The fact we can interview and have play artists who inspire us is another bonus, and bringing folk fans together.”
• “I’m enjoying the streams I’ve managed to get to, and the Q and A chat afterwards is a nice touch”
• “The streams have been brilliant and I have since become a follower of a couple of the musicians. I think the streams are a great way of introducing musicians to a new audience.”

You can watch all the live performances and Q&A sessions on FolkSocUK’s Facebook page.