Morris dancers up and down the country are feeling isolated.
Kath Brickell of Anonymous Morris came up with a great idea to get us outside with our morris kit on – the first Lone Morris Festival #LoneMorrisFestival happened at 14:30 on Saturday 21st March 2020. The plan was that as many dancers and musicians as wished would join in and either go outside in their gardens, their close locality, or stay indoors dressed in full kit and do some morris dancing. They would be either alone or have their husband, wife or whoever lives with them, thus the Lone Morris Festival.
When clips of lone morris dancing started to be posted on facebook, instagram, youtube etc., it was clear that the Lone Morris Festival had gone worldwide with people joining in from UK, America, Canada, New Zealand and the Ukraine.
The morris community were smiling, having fun and doing something normal. There were dancers, musicians, children and even pets joining in.
Dances were done with sticks, handkerchiefs, feather dusters and even a horseradish! It was amazing to see so many happy smiling people.
Following this success, the next Lone Morris Festival events will be on Saturday 25th April (the nearest Saturday to St George’s Day) and dawn (yes, dawn) on Friday 1st May.
Saturday 25th April at 14:30 will be the St George’s Day Lone Morris Festival. Morris dancers up and down the country will put on their full morris kit and dance & play their instruments in their gardens or close locality. If they cannot leave their homes, they will do it inside.
Dawn at 05:31 on Friday 1st May will be the following event, although this should be a silent Lone Morris Festival so as not to annoy the neighbours.
Look out for video clips and selfies on the ‘How many Morris Dancers are on Facebook?’ group, or search for the hash tag #lonemorrisfestival. Participants are encouraged to post the name of their morris/dance team and the name of the dance they are lone dancing.
The follow-on events will have the hashtags #StGeorgesLMF and #MayDayLMF.
See posts tagged #LoneMorrisFestival on ‘How many Morris Dancers are on Facebook?’
To see the dancing in action, look at the compilation video on YouTube:
And the speeded up version to the NEW Safety Dance by Save Heritage and Morris (SHAM):
See more about Anonymous Morris from Poole, Dorset.
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