Reflections on queer folk music...
- Nat natbrookesmusic@gmail.com
- Jun 10
- 7 min read
Updated: Jun 11
I've had a weekend of joyful queer things that I'd like to tell you about. I have felt such a strong feeling of coming full circle. I've been reflecting a lot, and I thought that sharing the wider context was valuable and joyful in and of itself, so here goes!
In 2021, during the COVID lockdowns, Lisa Heywood had the fantastic idea of running a Queer Folk Festival via Zoom. My partner has been friends with Lisa since they were children and so she turned to Beth and I to organise what we believe was the first online folk festival championing queer musicians.
The three of us formed the core organising team and then we reached out to the internet for help. We shared the idea on a queer folky Facebook group, and were met with an encouraging level of enthusiasm! We called it QOFF: The Queer Online Folk Festival. The name was my idea and I designed the logo, with limited access to appropriate software and very little in the way of know-how. Thankfully the logo was skillfully refreshed and improved upon by Janet Bell for our second festival in 2022.
We hosted the festival on Zoom and held a variety of events. Essa Flett and Louise Siddons contributed talks on the subjects of queering folk song and queering folk dance, Matt Norman led a song workshop, and we even had a social dance, led by Lisa with additional calling from Louise and Elion Budden. I think that Beth and I provided live music for the dancing, but there's no record of that on our program, so who knows!?
We also put together a YouTube showcase playlist, which I spearheaded from behind the scenes. We invited people to record a video for the playlist, and received a fantastic range of contributions. My partner, Beth, acted as a remote MC, introducing the musicians who'd sent such fantastic music to us. Of the many performers we had, Maddie Morris and Holly Clarke were both highlights for us. They both returned for our YT Concert Showcase the following year in 2022 along with Showcase debuts from Sophie Crawford, George Sansome and myself, among others.
In 2022, the same year they took part in QOFF, George and Sophie founded an organisation called Queer Folk. And less than three weeks after our second online festival, Queer Folk held their first Queer Ceilidh Dance Party at Cecil Sharp House. Just as we had invited them to appear on the QOFF Showcase, they invited Lisa, Beth and I to be part of the first queer ceilidh.
Queer Folk have gone on to host plenty of queer ceilidhs and to my absolute delight I have performed with them and acted as band leader for every single one of them so far. They are by far and away the most joyful and uplifting gigs that I have had the pleasure to have been a part of. But as I reflect back on the last few years, the very first of those stands out as a turning point for me. It feels like a turning point because it was the first time I really, genuinely understood why we call LGBTQIA+ people a community and it was the first time that I felt part of that community, of my community, deep in my bones. I wore a cute denim mini skirt with sparkly tights and a rainbow top that has sequins dotted around. I felt like myself. And possibly for the first time, my queerness didn't just feel acceptable, it felt celebrated. That first crowd were the most receptive, engaged ceilidh audience that I'd ever played too.
At many ceilidhs the band play polkas at the beginning and end of the night for people to dance to. Knowing that most of our audience are too new to ceilidhs to know how to polka, we usually just play a happy tune out. That very first Queer Ceilidh Dance Party, we finished with a 48 bar jig of mine called 'The Happy Hindrance' and the response that we got the second time through when the audience knew when to expect the stops was incredible. It is probably the most appreciated one of my tunes has ever been. After we finished playing, we had loads of lovely little chats with friendly audience members as we were packing our instruments away. It was thrilling to see Cecil Sharp House so full of such a diverse and friendly crowd of people, who hadn't particularly dipped their toes in the folky pool before, brought together by queerness.
Queer Folk have held ceilidhs in Sheffield and Leeds and we're soon to have our festival debuts this summer at Sidmouth Folk Festival and Shrewsbury Folk Festival. So it wouldn't be true to say that the Queer Ceilidh Dance Parties are London centric, but having the support of EFDSS has allowed us to host far more ceilidhs in London than anywhere else.
Because of our involvement with Queer Folk, Lisa and I decided to create The Rainbow Folk, a function ceilidh band that caters to the specific needs of queer people. We thought that we were well placed to cater to those needs so that queer couples and they're guests would feel welcome to dance, so The Rainbow Folk was born. Queer ceilidhs for queer people by queer people, just like queer folk, but designed for weddings. Because we want our clients to feel the joy of the Queer Ceilidh Dance Parties on their wedding days.
As Lisa and I are both based in the Midlands we wanted to build connections with local queer people and organisations, so as The Rainbow Folk we have been hosting public queer ceilidhs in community venues in the Midlands on a much smaller scale than the Queer Folk ceilidhs.
Now back to the present...
The Rainbow Folk held a Pre-Pride Ceilidh in Corby last Friday as a warm up event for Corby Pride. Sadly Corby Pride itself was cancelled at last minute due to storm warnings, but we had a gorgeous evening. So our weekend was off to a beautiful and queer start.
This is were it begins to come full circle for me...
On the following day, Saturday 9th of June 2025, Queer Folk made history and we were part of it, almost four years to the day after the first QOFF. Queer Folk hosted a Queer Folk Festival - We're not sure whether it's the first in the UK but it felt like a pretty humongous deal all the same. This celebration of queerness in folk music was partially built on the success of the Queer Ceilidh Dance Parties. The popularity of those ceilidhs (for which I feel so blessed) gave our supporters at EFDSS the confidence to trust in George and Sophie's vision. The Folk Festival was a huge success and it was a joy to be a part of it.
Much like QOFF there was music and dancing and a talk. If Lisa hadn't had the idea for QOFF and hadn't decided that Beth and I would be suitable partners in crime to organise it, then we may never have been asked by Queer Folk to join them for their ceilidhs and we wouldn't have played at the Queer Folk Festival.
At the first QOFF, we featured a song each from Holly Clarke and Maddie Morris. Maddie Morris opened proceedings of the Queer Folk Festival on Saturday with their unique brand of truth telling songs and Holly Clarke performed as the most hip gyrating quarter of pop/folk-hybrid Re:Vulva. We finished off the evening with a ceilidh just like we finished off the zoom events with a long distance ceilidh at the first QOFF.
I had been looking forward to the Queer Folk Festival for months, but on the day it made me more emotional than I had expected. I had a fairly mind numbing pain flare up on the day, but I was very lucky that my fistful of painkillers, handful of chocolate and a soupçon of adrenalin kicked in just in time for our ceilidh. I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else.
I'm not saying that The Queer Folk Festival Day couldn't have happened with out us, that would undermine all of the incredible work that Sophie and George do behind the scenes that no one ever sees but everyone benefits from. It took an absolutely gargantuan effort to turn the Queer Folk Festival Day from an idea in the ether into a moment of queer history at C# house. Thank you Sophie and George. But it is nice to think that I was part of a team that, back in 2021, planted a little queer seed, in the form of QOFF: The Queer Online Folk Festival, at a time when the world seemed upside down and outside in. The connections that I made through QOFF led me to this point and I'm so grateful to be here.
I have only ever benefited from accepting and learning to love my queerness, and sharing that with people who have similar experiences. I am so grateful that both QOFF and Queer Folk have given this introverted accordionist who writes weird tunes some incredible opportunities to do that. Living authentically and embracing my identity has brought such joy to my life. And working with Lisa, George and Sophie has resulted in life long friends who I absolutely adore spending time with and working with.
My next project, Correspondence, is an opportunity to collaborate with more queer folk musicians and I can't wait! I'll be sharing more info about Correspondence later this month, so if you're interested, sign up to my mailing list and you'll be the first to know!
Gush over,
Natalie
She/her
Trans and proud
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