The Christmas folk session started life as a one-off event at the Fat Cat more years ago than I care to remember. However, so many people asked us to do it again that we did, and we've been doing it ever since. The session moved down the road to the Dove four years ago when the Fat Cat was unavailable on the only day that we could make it, and we got comfy, so the Dove is now the regular venue. The event is organised every year by Triangle and nominally we run it, but in reality it runs itself. It's publicised largely by word of mouth and via my e-mail list, so if you want to know about next year's session, drop me a line with 'Ipswich folk' in the subject line, and I'll put you on the list. Or you could send word via this website.

And what of the session itself? Well, it kicked off at 2pm and petered out at about 5.30pm — last year we carried on till gone 9, but a lot of people had other commitments this year. Still, three and a half hours isn't bad! There must have been at least 15 musicians there, together with a couple of tables full of people just listening. This year the session took place in a marquee at the back of the pub, which had been left up after the preceding weekend's beer festival; it was a bit remote from the pub, but it was beautifully warm and there was plenty of room for musicians and audience alike.

There was, as always with the Christmas session, a great blend of music encompassing traditional folk and more modern numbers. Popular songs such as Frosty the Snowman and Fairytale of New York were interspersed with old carols including Gaudete, the Boar's Head Carol and the Basque Carol; and in between the seasonal music there were morris tunes, unaccompanied Irish folk songs, music hall and even some 60's pop! Vocal and instrumental music was fairly evenly balanced, as were solos and 'joining-in' numbers.

There were four small children there for about half the session who took great delight in joining in with whatever percussion instruments they could lay their hands on. They were remarkably well behaved most of the time and although they got a bit noisy occasionally, I thought it was great to see youngsters enjoying traditional music; after all, these are potentially the folk musicians of the future. There were also at least two people there who don't normally listen to folk but were drawn in by the sounds of a good time being had; one of them told me afterwards that he'd been surprised how much he enjoyed it, as the nearest he normally got to folk was listening to Jethro Tull!

All in all it was an excellent afternoon and I was only sorry that it came to an end so soon. Many thanks to everyone who came along and took part (whether by playing, singing or just listening). And, of course, many thanks also to Ady and Karen at the Dove, for their hospitality and their excellent beer.