We are delighted to have the lush and captivating sounds of Confluence playing for a balfolk dance, to close this year’s Festival social dance programme.

Confluence is an instrumental meeting of cello and accordion based in the New Forest. They join traditional music from the UK with beautiful dance tunes from France, Belgium and the Nordic countries, as well as self-penned tunes inspired by those traditions. They love improvising around tunes and finding new ways to interpret them, whether for dancing or for listening.

Gill Redmond is a folk cellist with her roots in classical music. As well as being half of Confluence folk duo, she also plays with the ceilidh band Jigfoot, and with Paul Hutchinson in ‘The Maniacs’. Accordionist Alasdair Paton has roots in classical piano but mostly plays accordion these days, after discovering folk music via Late Junction on the radio! As well as playing for French/Euro dancing as half of Confluence, he also features in the Southampton-based jazz swing quintet Bad Cat, and is often to be found at various Euro dance events or sessions around the south coast.

Expect waltzes, mazurkas, scottishes, bourrées, a few dances from Brittany and some polskas from Sweden.