Festival Reports

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 19th century 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, Lichfield, Gloucester, Stony Stratford, Stratford-upon-Avon and Grantham. Peterborough awaits in 2025.

Here are summary reports of the International Pipe and Tabor Festivals held since The Taborers Society was formed in 2005.