Sweyns Ey Morris danced at the Reverend James Pub and the Loughor Boat Club last night during an evening which was sunny and dry but chilled by the 20-30mph wind that was blowing! We had eleven dancers and three musicians out and managed to draw out about ten people from their houses who were very appreciative of our dancing.

The Boat Club is a splendid place to dance, being situated on the banks of the Loughor river. It was a place that the Romans called Leucarum and they had a small fortlet here guarding a ford. They would possibly have brought gold from the mines at Dolaucothi across this ford before taking the minerals to be smelted in the Imperial Mint at Lyons! The tide was low when we arrived but turned quickly and didn’t take long to fill with treacherous, swirling waters.
A marquee tent consumed the usual dance area outside and we were asked if we’d like to dance in the back room. We took up this kind offer although there was no audience due to a big pool tournament taking place in the main bar, so we ran through a variety of dances and used the opportunity to test bed our new dance Curly Boar which we perfected after a couple of attempts!

Here are some pics of the evening, of Di playing fiddle, and the obligatory sunset shot! A good evening out, and in!
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What a fab weekend this was! Sweyns Ey Morris were invited by Belle d’Vain Morris to this wonderful weekend of dance in the lovely town of Evesham after they saw us performing at last year's JMO Bath Day of Dance. It just goes to show, that the more you dance away from home, the more you will get noticed and invited to great events like this one.

Camp Sweyn was swiftly established on Friday evening with our gazebo and flag showing where to pitch tents. Evesham Rowing Club provided great facilities to help make the weekend the success it was. Friday night was spent playing & listening to the music session.

Saturday saw us up early, breakfasted, and on one of the ten coaches that would take 30+ Morris sides to areas in the Vale of Evesham. We shared our coach with Hereburgh Morris, Ragged Oak Border, and Nancy Butterfly Clog and we were dropped at the Cornmarket at Worcester where each side did 2-3 dances before we moved on to the main shopping street where we performed a faultless Y Gaseg Eira.

Droitwich was next visited and lunch and ale had at The Talbot Arms which was a very pleasant pub. Droitwich shopping precinct provided opportunity to dance, before we returned to The Talbot where we danced on land adjacent to it, and where, for the very first time, a ladies set of Sweyn’s Ey performed a perfect Brighton Camp Adderbury. Good to see girls! The following paragraph is Di's thoughts on this.
'MASSIVE thanks also to our fab musicians, Sian, Kevin and Roger, and to Morwen for calling the lady's set on Saturday. Felt like an important moment.. '

Return to the campsite followed a coach journey made more pleasant by singing, with highlights being being Ben’s rendition of The Pirate song and Nigel the Gossip John song. At the Gardens all sides performed a show dance and we gave a good account of ourselves by doing Y Gaseg Eira again. Then it was time to eat ice cream, drink tea and recover after the day’s exertions before joining the ceilidh with the band Banter for some more dancing that got the heart pounding a bit, or as Di and Kev did, join the music session at The Fleece. During the ceilidh, Sussex Junction Morris wowed everyone with their imaginative, and very athletic dancing.

Sunday saw most of us woken at an unearthly time due to a hot air balloon landing in the adjacent field to take on paying clients but the dancing that took place later in the day needs to be described by another scribe as I was not there to see it! I understand the Side performed Postman's Knock as a show dance to the masses.
Top marks to Belle d’Vain Morris who put on a really excellent weekend. We must go again! 
​Most pics by Paul and Claire.

Last night’s Solstice Tour was perfect! We started at the King Arthur at Reynoldston where there was a good crowd of people there enjoying the warm evening sun. The Felinfoel Double Dragon ale was on top form as always and helped in keeping us hydrated, dancing in such warm conditions.

We left the King Arthur at 9pm to make our way to Cefn Bryn and the walk over to Arthur’s Stone/ Maen Ceti to dance to a crowd of over fifty people who had assembled there to watch the Solstice sunset. The views of the Llwchwr/Loughor estuary were magical as the tide was high and presented a glittering vista, stretching the eye as far as Pembroke in the far distance.

​Our display at the stone saw us dancing Sherrif’s Ride which was a good dance we don’t often do. It certainly stretches the calves and Achilles’ tendons more than most dances and for one individual, Paul, it stretched them a little bit too much! We finished dancing after a Alex H spectacularly bit the dust dancing on the bumpy surface! A superb evening of dancing.

Sadly, this tour never happened due to poor weather.

The side enjoyed dancing again at this year’s festival. A few, Sian, Kevin, Di and Paul went to the Friday evening Blowzabella gig which was good but not perhaps as good as when they started out in 1980 when they produced a wall of sound which threatened to knock you over. I think it was the absence of the two Hurdy Gurdies that caused this notion! Camping facilities were good.

The side performed in the barn from noon until 2pm doing a variety of Cotswold Morris dances but were also able to do Y Gaseg Eira (Welsh Morris dance from Nantgarw) and we aired our own dance The Curly Boar/ Y Baedd Cyrliog which still requires a bit of practice to make it perfect. It would be good to be able to perform outside and not be hidden away. We invited willing members of the audience to have a go at Brighton Camp and we found one of Chippenham Morris Men joining in! We saw Paula & Ian Jones from Carreg Las Morris and many other worthies from years passed.

Here’s a selection of pics that Paul took of the day. There can be no other festival that boasts views as good as this one!

The side danced at both places but no write up or photos were taken of the event.