The International Pipe and Tabor Festival has its origins in 1999. Stephen Rowley was asked by Gloucester Folk Museum to examine a number of instruments in their collection. This included two bone pipes and an important wooden pipe from Chipping Campden.
Steve then organised a Pipe and Tabor Study Day and a Performance Day some weeks later. It was the first massed gathering of taborers in many years.
The following year saw the 1st International Pipe and Tabor festival. A five day event, which started with a performance at Millenium Dome, then a study day in Oxford museums, and a visit to the village of Bucknell, where the last morris taborer lived. There followed a symposium and two days of workshops and performance.
Since then the festival has continued annually (almost) and visited Stroud, York, St Albans and Lichfield.
Here are summary reports of the International Pipe and Tabor Festivals held since The Taborers Society was formed in 2005.