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.

bandstand sessions in August

There will be three bandstand sessions on the remaining Sundays of this month, namely

14.8.

21.8.

28.8.

each time starting to play at 4pm sharp and going on at least till 6pm. 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.

photo taken at July’s slow session at the bandstand

In other bandstand news, during the school holidays members of Cowley Orchestra will hold some chamber music sessions at the bandstand, typically on Wed evenings, around 6.30. Anybody interested in joining these give me a shout.

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.

bandstand sessions in July

bandstand sessions in July

We’ve had this month’s edition of the Oxford Slow Session today (incidentally also at the band stand), and now there are four Sundays left for our more informal bandstand sessions, namely:

10.7.

17.7.

24.7.

31.7.

As always, core playing time will be 4pm-6pm, but feel free to come earlier or stay later. The park closes at 9pm this month.

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.

Picture from today’s very lovely Slow Session, which was well attended and spilling over onto the sunny side of the lawn.

In other bandstand news, once the schools break up, members of Cowley Orchestra will hold some chamber music sessions at the bandstand, typically on Wed evenings, around seven, and then a bit earlier in August as the park will close earlier. Anybody interested in joining these give me a shout.

UPDATE: I just found out that 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.

noite de San Xoán

St. John’s night has been and gone, but a belated celebration is coming up on Saturday 2.7. 6pm till 2 am.:

Oxford Panforreteiras are pleased to be organising this get-together again, in collaboration with REGA-UK.

We will meet up in Port Meadow (Oxford) to celebrate the magic of St John’s night, AKA “Noite de San Xoán”.

Bring your own food and drinks and join in the celebration. There will be barbecues available to cook your food, a bonfire, Queimada and music. Bring your instruments if you have them and if not come ready to sing and dance to some Galician tunes!

We look forward to seeing you there!

Godstow Car Park
https://maps.app.goo.gl/hwXVNMmQ93gxS49E7

fb event page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/544675993768024

bandstand sessions in June

Unless there is really bad weather on the day, we will be playing tunes at Florence Park bandstand on the remaining three Sundays in June, namely:

12.6.

19.6.

26.6.

As always, core playing time will be 4pm-6pm, but feel free to come earlier or stay later. The park closes at 9pm this month.

Any change of plan will be announced in this blog entry and on my facebook page.

Oxford euro sessions

The monthly Euro session is coming up this Wednesday, quoth Ed:

The Oxford Eurosession for May will take place this coming Wednesday, the 18th, at the Plough, Wolvercote (OX2 8BD), starting at 8.30.

There’s another monthly Euro (plus) session happening at the White House, about which Ray says:

For May, the afternoon EuroPlus session at the White House, Abingdon Rd (OX1 4PD) will take place the last Sunday (29 May) instead of the usual fourth Sunday.  Going forward, we’ll revert to fourth Sundays, even when a month has five Sundays.  It starts at 4:30 PM as usual, and runs to about 7:30. 

bandstand sessions – season 2

I forgot to announce it here, but on Sunday 8th of May we had the first big outdoor session of this summer at the Florence Park bandstand, I counted at least 19 at peak time, and the audience was appreciative too. It was great fun and the general mood was we want to do more of these.

As far as I’m concerned, we could do all the remaining Sundays in May, ie:

15.5.

22.5.

29.5.

I’d suggest to start playing at 4pm sharp.  Meaning you can go to Flo’s Cafe and sort out your caffeine and food needs beforehand, as there will be no tea break.  

I normally expect to be there from 3:45 and to leave at 6:15

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 Scandi and French 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).

After these dates, we have the official Slow Session coming up on June 5th.

one of last summer’s sessions at the bandstand.