Your accountLog in Basket Search
English Folk Dance & Song Society English Folk Dance & Song Society
Cecil Sharp House
Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
National Youth Folk Ensemble

Support our work

US tax-efficient giving now available

Give now

Support our work

US taxpayers, make a tax-efficient donation and help us to maintain and expand our resources for folk arts practitioners and researchers

Give now

Support our work

We champion folk music and dance at the heart of cultural life, all across England. Can you support the folk arts with a donation today?

Give now

Support our work

We champion folk music and dance at the heart of cultural life, all across England. Can you support the folk arts with a donation today?

Give now

Support our work

We champion folk music and dance at the heart of cultural life, all across England. Can you support the folk arts with a donation today?

Give now
Donate Image Logo
  • Cecil Sharp House
  • Vaughan Williams Memorial Library
  • National Youth Folk Ensemble
  • What’s on
    • How to book
      • Travel to Cecil Sharp House
      • Access at Cecil Sharp House
    • Gigs
    • Classes & Courses
    • Conferences & Talks
    • CPD
    • Dances
      • The Folk Dance Calendar
  • Learning
    • Young People
      • National Youth Folk Ensemble
      • Dance
      • London Youth Folk Ensemble
      • Disabled Young People
      • Folk Unlimited
    • Adults
      • Cecil Sharp House Choir
      • Sunday Folk Music Workshops
      • Dance Classes
      • Lectures and Talks
      • Monday Folk Singers
      • Folk Beyond
      • FAQs
    • Families
      • Family Barn Dances
      • Family Friendly
    • Practitioners
      • Professional Development
      • Dance Development
      • Folk Education Network
    • Resources
      • Beginners’ GuidesBeginners’ Guides
      • GlossaryGlossary
      • A-ZA-Z
      • Resource Search
    • Schools & Colleges
      • Artsmark
  • Artist Development
    • Artists
      • Showcases
      • Commissions
      • Bursaries
      • Bursary stories
      • Bursary reports
      • Micro Grants
      • Musicians in Museums
      • Other Opportunities
    • Partners
      • Associate Company
      • Associate Artists
      • English Folk Expo
    • Folk Discovery
      • Bhangra Ceilidh
    • At Cecil Sharp House
      • Programming
      • Exhibitions
  • Support us
    • Donate now
      • General donation
      • Regular donations
      • Gifts in wills
      • US giving
    • Support an activity
      • Library
      • Dance Development
      • National Youth Folk Ensemble
      • Children and Young People
      • Artist Development
    • Membership
      • Starter Membership
      • Individuals
      • Groups
      • Libraries and Institutions
      • Insurance
      • Member Dance Clubs
    • Folk Shop
      • CDs
      • Publications
      • Book and CD Sets
      • Merchandise
    • Gift vouchers
  • About us
    • What we do
      • News
      • Advocacy
      • Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
      • Press and Media
      • Library
      • Partner Organisations
      • APPG for Folk Arts
    • Who we are
      • Staff
      • President
      • Board
      • Annual reviews
      • Annual General Meetings
    • Our history
      • Past projects
      • Gold Badge Awards
      • Local Heroes
    • Publications
      • Folk Music Journal
      • English Dance and Song
    • Folk Player
      • In the Archive With...
      • Listen: Classic Folk
      • Folk Folk
      • Old Songs Podcast
      • Young Folk Club Playlists
    • Work for us
      • Vacancies
      • Work Experience
      • Volunteer
  • Venue Hire
    • Seperator Test (3)
    • Seperator Test (4)
    • Seperator Test (5)
    • Hire our Venue
      • Weddings
    • Seperator Test
    • Seperator Test (2)
    • Seperator Test (3)
  • Members’ area

Introducing The Folk Dance Calendar

Friday 17th of December 2021

The English Folk Dance and Song Society is pleased to introduce The Folk Dance Calendar!


How to Create an Event on the Folk Dance Calendar – a brief tutorial prepared in collaboration with the Friends of English Dance


The Folk Dance Calendar helps anyone to start dancing, or to get even more involved than they are already. It gives organisers of folk dances – whether long-established newly instituted – an effective way to reach participants.

As the national organisation for folk dancing, we are committed to introducing people of all backgrounds and ages to the joys of this activity – for social interaction, fun and fitness.

Community-based dancing has been an integral part of the folk scene for generations. This social dancing is actively promoted in a wide range of contexts including educational settings (formal and informal), attached to community-based groups (eg for older people or for asylum seekers), at events such as folk dance clubs, country fairs and street festivals, and many more. The pandemic has brought a further vibrant scene of online-only events, as well as activities which bring together people in their own homes alongside dancers at a venue.

These models are typically highly welcoming to new and diverse participants; but these potential participants can often struggle to find them.

The Folk Dance Calendar aims to make it much easier for anyone to find opportunities to get dancing, according to their location and particular needs.

The calendar is freely available to all, and is integrated within the English Folk Dance and Song Society’s website.

As well as choosing dates and locations, users are able to filter events by a range of other useful criteria. You can choose to see only classes or workshops or participatory dances; or you can select events which have live music or refreshments; or accessible venues; or adults-only or youth-only or for families; or whether the dance is aimed at a particular skill level.

Since the Folk Dance Calendar launched, we have introduced further functions including

  • Option to search events text, for example to find all events including the word ‘Playford’   
  • Ability to search by geographical location when viewing a list of events (as well as when viewing the map)
  • An alternative summary (compressed) view of search results 
  • Dynamic refresh of search results
  • Improvements to simplify the submission of multiple events

When the Calendar launched in December 2021, comments included:

‘Excellent news! EFDSS is about to launch an online Dance Calendar. This will help dancers find out about dance events locally and across the country. It builds on our work with Set and Turn Single and we encourage you to try it and offer your feedback. Happy dancing!’ – Chris Turner and Bob Barrett of the website Set and Turn Single 

‘It’s really exciting to see EFDSS creating a centralised resource like this, helping grassroots organisers to promote their dances and allowing people to easily find events near them.’ – Lisa Heywood, ceilidh and social folk dance caller

‘My toes are twitching about this new website. Looking forward to getting to more events because I'll be able to find them!’ – Dance instructor Elizabeth Lawson 


All dance organisers are invited to submit their events for inclusion. Any events taking place in Britain and/or online will be appropriate for submission, as long as the organiser considers them to be social folk dancing. The calendar will improve further as more data is supplied, so we encourage everyone to get involved.

The Folk Dance Calendar has been made possible with a Cultural Recovery Fund grant from Arts Council England, supported by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Feedback is welcome, and can be sent to [email protected]

Browse The Folk Dance Calendar now

 To submit an event, create a free online EFDSS account (if you do not already have one) and then add your event at efdss.org/calendar-events/registration.


This news article was originally published in December 2021, and most recently updated in November 2022. 





Contact us
Travel
Access
Folk Shop
The Folk Dance Calendar
Policies
Safeguarding
Code of Conduct
Booking T&Cs
Terms of Use & Cookies
Facebook
Instagram
Bluesky
YouTube
LinkedIn
TikTok
Subscribe to our newsletter

English Folk Dance and Song Society, Cecil Sharp House, 2 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 7AY, UK.
Tel: 020 7485 2206 | Email: [email protected] | Registered charity number 305999
Cookies: The English Folk Dance and Song Society’s websites use cookies: please read our cookie policy for more information.

© 2025 EFDSS.
Supported by Arts Council England