Downham Market has historically attracted a small number of of artists and dissidents. A few years ago, Nico Dobben and John Preston decided the town needed to revive the folk nights that had long ago disappeared. They organised a night of acoustic music and poetry at The Hop and Hog, a café bar on the High Street. Before long that one night became a monthly fixture and even though the place fille
d for these open events The Hop and Hog sadly went out of business. The nights moved to the atmospheric setting of Denver Mill, which after a slow start, became well-attended. During that period Nico handed over the hosting of the evenings to another local songwriter and singer, Marshlander. Unfortunately, the owners of the mill were unable to let us continue to use the ground floor restaurant area and assigned us an upper room in the mill. Matters were taken out of our hands when the mill went out of business too. Marshlander brought the event back into town and for a couple of years the folk and poetry nights happened at The Cock Tavern. Next we met in the Stables behind The Crown in Downham Market town centre. The Stables room was eventually required for other uses and we started using the Fox Dining Room in the pub, which was a delightfully atmospheric room. Unfortunately there were again some accessibility issues. Following Covid and all the disruptions that came with the pandemic we started up again in 2022 at our latest venue, the Discover Downham heritage centre in Priory Road, Downham Market. While maybe not as atmospheric as some of our previous places and lacking a bar, it is by far the most easily accessed building we have used. We start at 7.30 (ish) and finish at 10pm. Musicians and poets gather to share their work with a regular audience. Following an increasing interest in original music and poetry we focus exclusively on original creations. There are plenty of other opportunities in the area for singing covers of modern or traditional songs, and we are proud to be different. We are very fortunate to be able to showcase some of the extraordinary writers and songwriters who have grown, or gathered and settled in the area. We welcome new audience members and new voices at our monthly gatherings.
