bandstand session Sunday 26.7.

The next Euro Plus session will be happening at the Florence Park bandstand this Sunday, 26.7., from 3:30pm.

Weather permitting, we’ll also have one on the 23th of August.

random pic of a previous session at the bandstand

last EuroPlus session at the bandstand

The next Euro Plus session will be happening at the Florence Park bandstand this Sunday, 24.8., from 4pm.

This will be the last one (at least for this season), because from September, EuroPlus will merge into the Balfolk Oxford / Bal Minuscule event that will now be happening every month on the fourth Sunday of the months at the Isis Farmhouse.

random picture of a bandstand session we had a few years ago.

Euro Plus session at the bandstand Sunday 27.7.

The next Euro Plus session will be happening at the Florence Park bandstand this Sunday, 27.7., from 4pm.

Weather permitting, we’ll also have one on the 24th of August.

From September we may join forces with the Bal Minuscule that happens every odd-numbered month and is possibly moving to the fourth Sunday of these months. Watch this space.

random photo from a previous bandstand session …

Euro Plus session at bandstand 22.6.

this month has five Sundays, so the Euro Plus session is _not_ on the last one but tomorrow, which is the fourth Sunday of the month. Happening at the Florence Park bandstand, from 4pm. By which time I hope the debris of today’s FloFest will have been cleared.

In other news, we had a very lovely midsummer street bal in Broad Street last night – people were dancing until curfew time at 11pm. And we played the Muiñeira Ponte San Paio as well as A bruxa. Photos on my flickr: https://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelgrr/54604937049/in/dateposted-public/

bandstand session tomorrow!

The Euro Plus session is happening at the Florence Park bandstand tomorrow, Sunday 25.5. I’ll be there a bit earlier to try and claim the space which can’t be booked.

Euro Plus includes but is not limited to Scandi, French, Breton, Galician, Balfolk, Balkan, Klezmer, Scottish traditions, basically everything.

random photo of our bandstand taken at another session a few years ago

bandstand sessions are back!

It’s been a while, but this spring and summer there will be Sunday afternoon folk sessions at the bandstand in Florence Park again! These will replace the monthly Euro Plus session (which can no longer take place at the Slow and Steady) while we’re looking for a new pub.

The first Euro Plus session at the bandstand will be on Sunday 30.3. from 4pm BST (!). Note that this is exceptionally the 5th Sunday of the month, because on the previous one the park was still on winter closing times and the weather wasn’t looking brilliant either. From April onwards, sessions should be happening on the fourth Sunday (possibly also on other Sundays that don’t have a competing afternoon session.) This Sunday the park will close at 8pm BST.

random picture of a bandstand session we had a few years ago.

Note that the space cannot be booked, so if we bump into a major party happening there, we may have to move to a different part of the park. At the other end of the park, near the car park, there are a couple of semi-enclosed paved areas with benches, which also work. I generally aim to be there a quarter of an hour before starting time to claim the space and play some wrong notes to drive other people away …

bank holiday bandstand sessions

For the third season of sessions at the Florence Park bandstand, Sundays are a bit tricky as there are now afternoon sessions on three Sundays each month at the White House. We could occasionally have early afternoon sessions at the bandstand such as not to clash with the WH sessions which tend to start quite late.

In May, however, we have three bank holiday Mondays to fill with music, so let’s aim at having bandstand sessions on:

1.5.

8.5.

29.5.

each time 3pm to 6pm provided the weather isn’t too atrocious. (While we do have a roof on our venue, cold wind and driving rain could pose problems.)

Ts and Cs like last year:

As for tunes to play, anything goes, but we may rely heavily on the vast repertoire of the Oxford Slow Session, which you can find here: https://oxfordslowsession.com/

and if you don’t know the tunes and want to sight read them we can announce the titles.  

We may also play some of the Galician tunes you find here: https://michaelgrr.wordpress.com/tunes-list/  as well as tunes from Oxford’s Euro sessions, so anything really.

Suitable for kids of all ages who can safely run around on the lawn around the bandstand. (there’s also a playground a short walk away).

randomly picked one of my photos from last summer – this one was probably a Slow Session.

Note that there are Low Traffic Neighbourhoods around Florence Park, so it is really lovely and safe to cycle there, but it may be tricky to find the way by car. There is also a new bus route that stops nearby.

Folk Weekend Oxford 2023

is happening now. Sessions schedule is here:

https://www.folkweekendoxford.co.uk/events/categories/sessions/

Magosto events

… are coming up in Oxford on Thu 10th:

(organised by the lecturer for Galician at Oxford, so I am assuming speak dating is something she inflicts on her students!)

and in London on Saturday 12th

bandstand sessions September 2022

I’m afraid there are only two remaining Sundays that I can make this month, so unless there is a thunderstorm, let’s have bandstand sessions on the

11.9. [UPDATE: in the light of current events I haven’t promoted this Sunday’s session any further, so assume it’s not happening, but do email me if you want to play.]

25.9. UPDATE – no bandstand session today, but there is a Euro+ session at the White House from 4:30

each time starting to play at 4pm sharp and going on at least till 6pm (although if we don’t have critical mass by 5pm and there is another session at the White House, we might decide to move there). The park closes at 8:30 pm this month.

In terms of repertoire, anything goes – whoever turns up determines what gets played. The last one was a Galician session of sorts, and before that we often played slow session repertoire, it’s all good.

I’ll be there and playing tunes unless the weather is absolutely atrocious. Any change of plan will be announced in this blog entry and on my facebook page. If for whatever reason we are unable to use the bandstand, the alternative location is one of the little paved areas at the car park end of the park, near the star-shaped crossing of the paths. With the hard surface, these also offer reasonable acoustics, although very little shelter.

July’s Slow Session at the bandstand.

Access by public transport: There is a new bus route serving Florence Park. City46 leaves city centre via Abingdon Rd, crosses Donnington Bridge, stops at Florence Park Rd, then carries on towards Cowley and Great Milton. Runs 7/7 and could be useful for reaching the park from any of these places. There was a story about it in the Guardian, because it is co-funded by Raymond Blanc who hopes it will shuttle customers to his restaurant.