Pitchfolk 2026

For the fifth Pitchfolk weekend our expert workshop leaders will be teaching polyphonic songs from three radically different traditions, each of which has been recognised by UNESCO as a treasure of intangible heritage. We'll be exploring the polyphonic songs of the Baka people of the Cameroonian rainforests, Swiss folk songs, and songs from the West of Georgia. Although these unique and highly distinctive traditions come from separate continents, they nonetheless share a common thread, as each features a different style of yodelling. Yodelling is simply a rapid switching between our usual 'chest voice' and falsetto, or 'head voice', and is a great way to experiment with this aspect of our voices, and better understand how these registers work, and what they are capable of – knowledge and experience that will be useful, whatever music you generally sing. There will, of course, be plenty of non yodelling parts to sing. But for those who want to give the yodelling a go, it's going to be fascinating, and a lot of fun, to contrast and compare the ways in which these very different cultures use it to ornament the underlying harmonies. As well as the singing workshops we'll have, as always, storytelling, informal singing sessions, and our Saturday night feast, with performances from the floor. And once again we'll have a question and answer panel session with our workshop leaders, which proved so interesting and popular last year. This year we'll again be based at the Quaker Meeting house in Street, near Glastonbury, with camping on site, good public transport links, and all amenities close by.