On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
As part of the Winter Ghosts event at Whitby, there will be a session of book readings at the Rusty Shears Gin Cafe from 11am to 1pm on Saturday 16th December.
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
Two Bobs from the Boro region will bring marvelous stuff to Winter Ghosts.
Leasungspell: A Fool’s Tale at the Metropole Ballroom, Whitby 17th December
An epic poem set to live music and recorded sound effects performed by Bob Beagrie, Sara Dennis, Kev Howard, Peter Lagan and S.J.. Forth, recounting the journey of Brother Oswin’s from the monetary of Herutea at Hartlepool to Whitby in the year 657 AD. Oswin’s carries secret letters from St Hild and must keep to the wee wegs as he traverses the wildoren, haunted by the ancient spirits of the land and his own grim ghosts. The piece brings the Wyrd of the dark ages to life in a strange language that is uncannily familiar.
Bob Beagrie will also be reciting poetry with Jane Burn from their book This Game of Strangers earlier in the day on 17th December at the Rusty Shears book readings.
Also appearing at the Metropole will be Bob Fischer, who will invoke a strange and sinister familiar figure from the past to bring us some eeriness to shiver our timbers.
Bob Fischer is an experienced writer and broadcaster specialising in an eclectic blend of popular culture and folklore. His debut book Wiffle Lever To Full! (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008) was an offbeat travelogue of British science-fiction and cult TV conventions (‘A joyous, irreverent celebration of Britain’s secret love of the bizarre’ – Gay Times) and, in more recent years, he has written for the Fortean Times magazine, covering such diverse subjects as the hauntology movement, the books of Alan Garner, and the folklore and mythology of the North Yorkshire moors. This latter subject also formed the basis of his radio documentary Worms, Witches and Boggarts, broadcast on BBC Tees in 2014. He continues to broadcast regularly for BBC Tees, and is currently using his love of Northern folklore as the inspiration for his first novel, Juddwick. It’s a work in progress… but that’s what they all say, isn’t it?
For tickets and full line up information – Winter Ghosts
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
Appearing at the Whitby Met as part of the Winter Ghosts event, Folk Horror Revival
are pleased to present the sinister, seasonal sounds of Equestrian Vortex featuring Melmoth the Wanderer
Born from their mutual love of classic 1970s and 80s horror cinema this duo construct soundtracks to horror movies that were never made. Hailing from the dankest, seediest corners of Newcastle Upon Tyne, the Equestrian Vortex are here to take us into the darkest recesses of the minds of H.P. Lovecraft, Dario Argento, Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, Fabio Frizzi, John Carpenter, Lucio Fulci, Jess Franco, Jose Larraz, Jorge Grau and Jean Rollin. They are an occult celebration of the hidden practices of magick and the supernatural, using their love of vintage analogue synthesizers to inspire their paeans to the darker side of culture.
Darren Charles is curator of Unearthing Forgotten Horrors, a radio show with the intent of reviving interest in classic horror movie soundtracks, wyrd psychedelia, freaky folk, and anything that doesn’t fit into the mainstream musical landscape. He has been a member of the Folk Horror Revival admin team from the group’s humble beginnings and has recently completed an MA in History from Newcastle University with a focus on 17th century witchcraft trials in England and Scotland. Darren is currently working on several projects for Folk Horror Revival, and has spoken at Cambridge University, The British Museum, Summerhall, Edinburgh and The Hepworth, Wakefield on the subject of Folk Horror. Antony Wealls has been producing music since his late teens under various guises and genres. He is currently involved in collaborative projects The Equestrian Vortex and The Mortlake Bookclub, he also produces solo material as Time Destroys All Things.
Integrating with The Equestrian Vortex will be Melmoth the Wanderer evoking a spirit of Jamesian ghosts of Christmas
`Shadow master and guardian of the weird and wayward’…`remixer supremo and visionary seer of the sonic pastures that lurk beyond the imagination.’ Melmoth wanders the outer reaches of The Field Bazaar collecting sounds, snatches of spoken word and music that seems as old as the timeworn paths he treads. When the burden of these sounds becomes too much for our devout and religious miscreant he visits the bedlamites, the insomniacs and those truly alone offering his audio harvest as comfort from the silence.
The Melmoth the Wanderer mixes are the result of these nocturnal visits to their creator Jim Peters – a self-confessed Audio Relic Hunter locked into the sounds of the night, the light and the half-light.
Melmoth is honored to be counted as one of The Mortlake Bookclub and has also mixed and remixed for The Hare and the Moon, The Soulless Party, Zeuk, Sproatly Smith and many other artists on the Reverb Worship label.
Visuals for the performance will be provided by Adam Scovell, author, filmmaker and creator of the Celluloid Wickerman blog
Adam Scovell is a writer and filmmaker from The Wirral, currently based in London. He is studying for a PhD in film music and transcendental style at the University of Liverpool and Goldsmiths. He has produced film and art criticism for more than 20 digital and print publications including The Times and The Guardian, runs the Blog North Awards-nominated website Celluloid Wicker Man, and has had film work screened at FACT, The Everyman Playhouse, Hackney Picturehouse and Manchester Art Gallery. In 2015, he worked with Robert Macfarlane on an adaptation of his Sunday Times bestseller, Holloway. At present he is filming a number of projects on super-8 film including a collaboration with Iain Sinclair, and has published a book on folk horror for Auteur Publishing.
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
We are happy to announce that speaking at the Met on Saturday 17th December, will be George Cromack delivering a wave of Coastal Terrors.
George Cromack is a writer, tutor/lecturer in H.E and Adult Education whose core subject areas are creative fiction, specifically Scriptwriting for film & T.V, and Film Studies. In 2013 George devised and scripted Cold Calling a ghost story turned chiller for Calavera Cafe Productions which premiered at Whitby’s own Bram Stoker International Film Festival. For almost ten years George taught on a number of programmes at the University of Hull’s Scarborough Campus – including modules on their Creative Writing Degree. It was during this time he developed his interest in what has become widely known as the Folk Horror genre, the subject of his film based PhD thesis. A keen writer of fiction, George’s work has appeared in several small short story anthologies.
Also speaking at Winter Ghosts is Dr Elaine Edmunds who has been a major force in bringing Folk Horror Revival to Whitby.
After a long career as a senior practitioner in NHS mental health Elaine relocated to Whitby at the end of 2010 to focus on developing arts practice.
Her interest in themes relating to Folk Horror started in early life with a happy childhood experience of Hammer House of Horror, Pan and Fontana books, and Tales of Mystery and Imagination.
Her enlightened parents also allowed her to read Man Myth and Magic as a comic. As a social psychiatrist she has always been interested in social anthropology and comparative folklore.
Decadent Drawing was started by Elaine and husband Laurence Mitchell in 2013. This started suitably at La Rosa as a loose community arts group exploring themes outside the mainstream, challenging boundaries and allowing for art mischief. Many of our sessions have specifically referred to Folk Horror, The Tell Tale Art was the title of their Poe exploration with vignettes from his stories being staged for people to draw or interpret any way they wished. They have also featured Dadd, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, the Dybbuk, Victorian Spiritualism. The court of King Rudolph II with Alchemy and of course Krampus.
More recently they put on art events including Dark Arts Exhibition at the Bram Stoker International Film Festival and various fundraisers. They have recently successfully launched the 3rd Whitby Krampus Run.
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
On sale at the Emporium will be a wide array of great quality folk horror merchandise. books and art. Plenty of choice for Yule treats for the special folk in your life or for yourself, so bring along a few extra pennies in anticipation of tempting, quality and fairly-priced special things.
The Emporium is run by Kt Mehers of Honeycake Candles
and Eolith Designs
Eolith Designs showcases the talents of Kt’s husband Cobweb.
Cobweb lives in a little house at the edge of the world with his wife Kt and their cats Sekhmet and Baal. He claims to have been sculpting and painting for as long as he can remember, but it’s been longer than that.In recent years he has devoted himself more and more to sculpture based around mythical and historical themes many of which can be found at www.eolithdesigns.co.uk. In his spare time he paints things he wishes he hadn’t seen, and pokes dead religions with sticks. He’s currently in the early stages of a new project called “Beyond the fields we know”, inspired by the landscape and folklore of the North Pennines. This will include 2D and 3D work and a lot of being very cold in the middle of nowhere seeing things he wishes he wasn’t seeing.
One of the key criticisms of the Folk Horror Chain is its emphasis, both in argument and in evidence, upon the rural landscape and its various elements. While the key works of Folk Horror cinema seem to broadly use rural landscape aesthetics and practice to set and conjure their horror, by setting up such a parameter, it does indeed neglect some of the sub-genre’s most popular and effective examples. This brief assessment aims to balance the rural-heavy arguments outlined so far with some of the more urban of examples, labelling them “Urban Wyrd” and showing their links with the Folk Horror Chain as well as several key differences.
When putting together the presentation about this chain for the Folk Horror conference in Belfast last year, some of the preparation for it was to try and anticipate criticisms and potential questions that would be asked afterwards. The key question that I…
On the weekend of 15th and 16th December 2017, a strange mist will fall upon the coastal town of Whitby. From the sea fret will come haunting sounds and tales and more besides. Here over the coming days we shall in turn usher in the ghosts of winter …
On Friday 15th December at Whitby Bookshop at and on Saturday 17th December at Rusty Shears gin cafe on and at the Metropole Ballroom Chris Lambert (with The Soulless Party) – Storyteller – Teacher – Traveller of Mist – Mythogeographer – Demiurge – Liar will be treating us to much mysteriousness from his impressive array of books.
Chris Lambert is the curator of the Black Meadow and its associated phenomena. He works closely with Kev Oyston as part of “The Soulless Party” to uncover the mysteries hidden within its dense mist.
He has had short stories published in Dark Spirits, The Ghastling, The Dead Files and Tales of the Damned. He has had four plays published and over 20 performed professionally including: The Simple Process of Alchemy, Loving Chopin and Ship of Fools. He occasionally dabbles with music too. In 2016 he curated Songs from the Black Meadow (Mega Dodo) a folk horror album featuring the music of artists from around the world. He is currently putting together a new album based on the Wyrd Kalendar which will be released by Mega Dodo in the autumn of 2018.
Starburst Magazine has this to say about Tales from the Black Meadow: “The stand out entries include “Beyond the Moor” a poem about a maiden accosted by a bandit who remains unafraid due to having been to the “beyond” of the title and returned. Also of note are “Children of the Black Meadow” where a bereaved mother resurrects her deceased kids as blackberry bramble homunculi; cyclical damnation tale “The Coal Man and the Creature” and the paranoia-inducing sucker punch “The Watcher From the Village” … this is a collection that strongly invites a second reading…”
Sebastian Baczkiewicz – Creator of BBC Radio 4’s “Pilgrim” said this about Wyrd Kalendar – “Gripping, sometimes terrifying but always surprising: this is the year described in the Wyrd Kalendar. Live it if you dare…”
A tale of magic and adventure for readers aged 8 – 12 in the tradition of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper. Twins Lucy and Jay rescue a caged hare and then follow it to a moonlit gathering of hares. They find themselves falling into a world of shapeshifting and becoming hares themselves.
To celebrate the Full Cold (Super)Moon, Wyrd Harvest Press are delighted to present Hares in The Moonlight – a magical tale for older children by the accomplished singer-songwriter Sharron Kraus
100% of profits from FHR / Wyrd Harvest Press books sold in the Lulu store will be charitably donated at Solstices and Equinoxes to different environmental, wildlife and community projects undertaken by the Wildlife Trusts.
Folk Horror Revival & Urban Wyrd Project ⨘ 