From: Rob Merrills (The Padwell) [rob.merrills_at_thepadwell_dot_com]

Sent: 06 September 2011 21:01

Subject: Kent Folk Website - new venue and some new events (hopefully)

 

Good Evening Beau – apologies for firing an e-mail at you out of the blue, but I’m hard-pushed to know quite where else to start !

In simple terms, I am writing on behalf of a friend of mine who has recently taken over a pub near Sevenoaks – The Padwell at Stone Street – and who has a grand ambition to turn it in to a bit of a venue for anything in that falls under the whole folk-arts remit. There’s a Beer Festival this weekend, with morris dancers, drummers from the Sussex Bonfire circuit and live music – plus we’ve had occasional morris stands over the Summer since he took over in July. The ambition though, as I say, is to establish a place “on the circuit” and get an established open-mic evening on  the calendar, along with mumming at Christmas, wassailing, our own Folk Ale at some point, and anything else that involves people having a good time !

I guess the starting point would be to ask if you would please be kind enough to list the pub under your “venues” section, with the relevant details being as follows:

The Padwell; Stone Street; Sevenoaks; Kent; TN15 0LQ

tel: 01732 761532

web: www.thepadwell.com

mail: events_at_thepadwell_dot_com

I imagine it may then be best to try and establish the best day and dates on which the projected evenings can be pencilled in. Thursday’s have been mooted as being preferable as they do not clash with any other regular functions, and the second and fourth such days of the month – in consultation with your current events calendar – seem to have no other events that are set to take place too close to the Sevenoaks area (we obviously do not want to clash with any established sessions, or tread on any toes – and with this in mind there only seems to be an event in Faversham, which is an appreciable distance from The Padwell).

So – where do we go from here ?

Please bear in mind that we’re really starting from the ground up, with nothing other than the aforementioned Morris events on which to build, so might I be so bold as to ask what you think is the best course to adopt ? Is it considered appropriate to mail as many performers I can find listed on your web site (and others), propose some dates and invite anyone who might be interested to come along, or is this not the way to go ? Are we are best to start off by personally approaching local artists, asking them to come along and then maybe to spread the word if they enjoy themselves and think that we are trying to do something worthwhile – this sort of organic growth would seem to be a far more acceptable way to build things up, but perhaps the mailing would be a good “kick start” to get things on the notice board in the first instance ?

I can see from the depth of content on your site that you are clearly a real “mover and shaker” on the county’s folk scene, and would therefore be very appreciative of any guidance that you can find time to give us and, of course, you will be absolutely assured of a warm welcome to The Padwell should you ever pay us a visit, with a place of honour and an extensive array of complimentary beers yours for the taking !

Look forward to hearing from you

With very kind regards


Rob Merrills