Contents |
IVFDF stands for 'Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival' it is an exciting and dynamic festival held at a different university each year. IVFDF has been running since 1951 and is the country's longest continually running folk festival. The tour so far spans over 20 locations as far apart as Exeter in the south and Glasgow in the north. You don't have to be a student to go, just vaguely young or energetic. The Festival is particularly aimed at students, but it is open to everyone and caters for a wide range of ages and interests with numerous ceilidhs and workshops covering a wide range of dance styles - Scottish Country, Highland, Morris, Rapper Sword, Irish, and Playford are typical examples, with plenty of more exotic workshops varying from year to year.
The keyword is FESTIVAL: basically, hundreds of people attending for three days and two nights of intense dancing, playing music and singing, until they are unbelievably exhausted; A non-stop weekend of music and dance from the British Isles and beyond - there is the option of sleep for those who can bear to miss something.
In general the answer is anyone with an interest in lively, young, energetic folk music and dance. Because the festival is aimed in particular at universities it is attended by large numbers of students, ex-students and staff from all around the country - although in some cases ex-student means 30 years or so. But just because it is aimed at students does not mean that we limit who can attend. Anyone who is willing to enjoy and participate is welcome.
If you would like to find out more details on participating organisations can be found on their individual web sites or a full list of members who attended the last reps meeting can be found at the start of the minutes for each IVFDF Representatives meeting.
This site contains prolific quantities of information about the festival including a complete history, photos and details of the constitution however if that is not enough for you there is also a mailing list available that you can join and an archive of postings to the mailing list is available on the site.
The next IVFDF to be held will be 2nd - 4th March 2007 in Edinburgh (Festival WebSite).
We are currently moving information over from the old website over to this nice new shiny one which is based on the mediawiki software used by sites like wikipedia. This means that ANYONE can now edit the site! If you would like to help in creating this site please email (mailto:webmaster@ivfdf.org) us for an account.
Unfortunately this does mean that at the moment this means the history is still mostly contained on the old pages (anyone who wants to help with the transision please request an account). You can find a copy of the old pages here.
