A Sunday afternoon with the Wee Folk at the Black Swan Inn, York.

Love live music and have children? Guest blogger Hester indulges in an afternoon of toddler-friendly folk at one of York’s most historic pubs.

As a girl raised on Dick Gaughan and Christy Moore I was not at all shy of the idea of a Sunday afternoon in the pub tapping my comfy shoes to a spot of folk music- but the brilliant thing about this gathering… it’s especially for the nippers. So I got to sup a half (or two) of real ale whilst watching my 3 year-old son rolling about on the floor and no-one told us to leave- yay!

You can take along your own instruments for the wee folk to bash and tinkle and listen to them joining in with the rather more accomplished musicians, (those chaps who set the gig up in the first place). There is a definite folky vibe, high concentration of organic cotton and sensible shoes (myself included) and anyone can sing along or sing alone or crank out a tune on an appropriate instrument (guitars, recorders, fiddles, accordions are good).

There was a beer-and-chip break to enable musicians of all sizes to wet their whistles and get a bit of energy for the second half. The songs and music are geared towards the children but there were some good old favourites in there for the bigger folk to enjoy.

Once the little chaps and chappesses tired of dancing they stood and gazed at the musicians in wonder, fought over the only percussion triangle, crawled under chairs and ate chips whilst the grown-ups chatted and supped in a happy haze of acoustic-induced bliss…and we STILL didn’t get chucked out. It is one of the best things as a parent to be able to enjoy a couple of hours as a family in a public place (house )without worrying that everyone else hates you for not tying your children to a chair (I do actually know someone who was tethered to a chair in a pub with her toddler reins).

At the end we were invited to chuck some change in the hat in aid of Tommy’s (a charity that funds medical research into miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth) which, being good and honest folk, we all did. Everyone was really friendly and it’s agreat place to go for a beer and a bite any way, if only to take in the rickety, rambling architecture of this 17th century inn, with or without the wee folk in tow. We’ll definitely be going back for next month’s get-together. Folk on!

The Wee Folks Facebook page lists the upcoming dates as April 17th and May 15th from 3-5pm.

Photographs copyright Dan Cashdan.