Folk Unbound: The Gathering

Summer Camp 14-18 July 2025, Castleton, Derbyshire

A very warm welcome to the very first Folk Unbound: The Gathering summer camp! A residential week of music making for instrumentalists who identify as women and/or a marginalised gender* to come together to learn, improvise and connect through their love of folk music. This space is open to all levels, but we ask that you are able to learn a tune by ear on your instrument. All tunes will be in DG friendly keys (i.e. D, G, Amin, Emin, Bmin, F#min etc).

The aim of this week is to co-create a space where everyone feels able to contribute and take joy from their own and others playing. We are anti-elitism, anti-discrimination and pro-confidence. We’ve experienced first hand that feeling of ‘I’m not good enough to join in’. We’ve hidden at the back of many a session. Realising that a lot of musicians out there were feeling the same, we decided to do something about it!

*We use the term “marginalised genders” to refer to those who experience marginalisation due to their gender. This includes transgender women, cisgender women, transgender men, non-binary people, among many other marginalised gender identities.

What to expect?

You will learn instrumental folk pieces as a group ensemble, taught by the tutors. We will be exploring ways of playing together and ways to join in even if you don’t know a tune. We’ll be encouraging some smaller group and solo work and composition of new pieces too. We plan to do a mix of communal cooking in the evenings, and have someone on hand to make lunches in the day. We would love to make held space to talk about our experiences on the folk scene – good and bad! And there will be games, social and free time, optional walks in the surrounding countryside and maybe a pub visit.

Who is it for?

Anyone of a marginalised gender who wants to:

Nurture their own musicianship
Connect with other musicians
Support and celebrate each other!

This is open to musicians who are able to join in with learning instrumental folk music on their own instrument as part of ensemble playing and solo. You don’t’ need to be a ‘folkie’; we welcome people to come and learn about (and co-create) this ever changing tradition with us!

Where is it?

We are lucky to have booked a small gem of a place just outside the village of Castleton in the Peak District. Castleton lies in the embrace of Mam Tor (mother hill), also known as the Shivering Mountain. We’re about a 20 minute flat walk out of the village, and accessible by car with plenty of parking spaces. The space has two large halls, a large equipped kitchen, and accessible shower room/toilet with ground floor facilities all step free. There are dorms with bunk beds, and space for camping and hard standing for camper vans.

How much is it?

There are 25 places available. All the prices below cover all food, accommodation and tuition for the week. Any extras (like alcohol) is up to you to provide! Everyone who applies is required to pay a £50 deposit. If for any reason you are unsuccessful, this will be refunded to you. If you are offered a place which you then cancel, the deposit will be non-refundable unless we are able to give your place to someone else. This is just to make sure that folks have really read and understood who this event is for and if it’s right for them before applying.

We’re offering a tiered pricing system so that we can subsidise some cheaper places for those who need them. We have limited spaces available for low income tickets, which will be allocated on a first come first served basis, providing you are successfully given a space on the course. Here’s what our tiered prices mean:

Low income ticket– ‘I have low income or I would select a concession rate for an event due to my personal circumstances’
Standard ticket– ‘I have access to a regular and stable income/savings or inheritance.’
Solidarity ticket– ‘I have the financial means to contribute towards making this event accessible for others’

Early Bird prices (available until 14/03/2025):
Low Income – £175 (limited spaces available)
Standard ticket – £185
Solidarity ticket – £210

Prices after 14/03/2025:
Low Income – £175
Standard ticket – £195
Solidarity ticket- £220

Who are the tutors?

Folk Unbound is the brain-baby of Lucy Huzzard and Mel Biggs, both box players and long time folkies on the English trad scene. Whilst working together on Mel’s Chatterbox podcast & guest tutor series on Patreon, they shared stories about their own battles with confidence and the patriarchy on the folk scene (check out Lucy’s episode here)! Folk Unbound was born out of taking positive action to nurture those who might not always feel welcome or confident in some of the usual sessions/festivals and folk spaces.

Lucy Huzzard

With one foot on the dancefloor at all times, Lucy Huzzard has over 17 years of melodeon and dance teaching under her bellows. Having grown up playing for Cotswold Morris and Rapper, Lucy brings the groove of English melodeon music into her current loves- Swedish folk music and dance, and political songwriting in her duo Lucy & Hazel. She’s also one third of Swedish dance facilitators The Third Beat, who teach in-depth courses on Swedish folk dance.

Growing up in Sheffield, followed by studies on the Folk Music Degree and Swedish dance at the Eric Sahlström Institute, she has crossed Rapper swords, stoked ceilidhs and polska’d through the night with some of the finest folk musicians and dancers in the country and further afield. She’s just started co-hosting a queer folk session at Gut Level in Sheffield, led by and centring marginalised genders, women and LGBTQIA+ people.

Mel Biggs

Mel Biggs is a Morris dancer, musician, and highly-renowned melodeon tutor based in Derbyshire, England. With over 16 years of teaching experience, she’s known the world over for her perceptive, patient and mindful manner and has an ever expanding toolkit of techniques at her disposal.

For nearly a decade, Mel played in Moirai with Sarah Matthews and Jo Freya. Together they created 3 albums and toured UK and Europe, culminating in their self-penned show ‘Framed: The Alice Wheeldon Story’. Most recently, Mel completed a life ambition to work in musical theatre and debuted as an actor-musician in the 2022-2023 UK & Canada tour of Fisherman’s Friends: The Musical. She has a deep passion for folk & social dance, particularly Balfolk and French dance.

Mel is really looking forward to co-facillitating an event that she feels desperately in need of, and can’t wait to share the benefits of this unique experience with others!

Frankie Insley

Our guest tutor for 2025 is Frankie Insley. Frankie is an absolute force for community folk music and dance! After discovering folk through Morris dancing as a teenager, she has become a passionate advocate of the joy of folk! She is the founder of DIY Ceilidh, a chaotic, joyful and hugely popular monthly ceilidh series that is volunteer-run and queer friendly.

Frankie is a multi instrumentalist and among other things has a deep love for the one row melodeon and fiddle! When she’s not calling ceilidhs she is also heavily involved with Newcastle’s punk scene, performing in her band Bitchfinder General. She also performs with the Newcastle drone folk collective Powtes.

Frankie is a warm, welcoming and generous teacher who is passionate about helping others find their own joy and expression through music.

Folk Unbound: The Gathering 2025