About Folkestone Songwriting Festival

                                                 Important Announcement..

We are so very sorry to say that due to Arts Council England’s funding portal crashing in the summer and the delay in processing our application ( we won’t hear until early December) we have had to make the regretful decision to push back from our original date 5th – 7th December til later in the year and we will announce the new dates and the additional workshops soon..

The Burlington Hotel has very kindly allowed us to transfer the pre paid booking for the hotel rooms and workshop space over to the new date so all previous bookings are still valid and secure with no additional costs have been incurred – sincere thanks the Events Manager Laurent for being so kind and accommodating this change which means we can still go ahead without losing our pre payment for rooms and meals which is a huge relief.

We hope you are still able to join us and I will email you separately however if you are unable to make the new dates a full refund will of course be given and any inconveniences and costs incurred will be compensated. 

We are so disappointed as many of you no doubt will be too and cancelling at such short notice is never good and I hope you can appreciate how difficult this has been and we assure you that Hannah, Findlay and myself are all committed to honouring the festival and it has been postponed for a few weeks and not cancelled.

Thankfully our sponsorship generated income which is not funding dependent means that the infrastructure of venues etc is secure  however we want it to be the best possible experience and the additional funding from Arts Council England would mean we have the extra support for more inclusivity and accessible to a wider audience and attendees so we feel that this is the best decision.

As a sole trader and independent promoter it is essential that the festival is financially viable and the push back gives us more time to adapt to the changing financial dynamics we encounter – we will not compromise on the quality so the slight adjustments we have made  will actually create a better experience and we thank you all for your understanding – we guarantee it will be as brilliant as ever! 

And on we go…and so happy to retain our wonderful and amazing team. Thank you all.

This year’s guest songwriting coaches are multi award winning musician Hannah White and Findlay Napier who will be guiding you through group sessions learning new ways to develop your writing and compositions and help you get out of the same old groove you’ve found yourself in.

We will be announcing more tutors once we hear if our Arts Council bid has been successful.

We also have fringe masterclasses from guitar virtuoso Chris Corcoran and a Vocal Confidence workshop (tutor Josie Matcham).

The maximum number of students is capped at 15, ensuring a more intimate and personal experience with plenty of one-on-one time with tutors.