At the last Gathering I promised that I would guarantee that there would be a Dark Gathering in 2023. Well, to be honest, there were times in the last couple of months when that seemed less and less likely. We as a team did our utmost to organise the event using the only feasible site left to us in Boscastle, which was the part of the car park opposite the Cobweb Inn. However hard we tried it just wasn’t happening as we met obstructions and delays to the extent that we had to sit down and consider a Plan B. We had to face the hard reality that the Dark Gathering had outgrown the infrastructure of Boscastle and that it was time to move on.
So I’m here to announce that the Dark Gathering 2023 will be held in Tintagel. It will remain a ticketed event for now as this is the only sure fire method of raising sufficient funds to stage the Gathering, as well as the fact that we can control numbers. Our present licence only allows us up to 500 attendees which includes all performers and marshals. We will make sure that tickets will be available well in advance, and will issue adequate warning of their imminent release – so please be patient and do not ask us in the meantime, as taking time to answer these type of queries only distracts us from organising the event.
We will update you with further details about the venue as soon as they are confirmed. I appreciate that maybe not everyone will be happy about this decision to change locations, but we had no other viable options available to us. I agree with many that it’s not the same since we left the venue outside the Museum in Boscastle – but there’s nothing we could have done about that – it was a irreversible decision taken by others which we had no say over.
Tintagel has it’s own magic and is steeped in ancient history, it is only 4 miles away from Boscastle and I urge all of you who attend the Dark Gathering to continue to visit Boscastle during your stay in October. You will find that because Tintagel is a town rather than a village, it has more space and facilities which is good news. All the people I have spoken with thus far in my enquiries into Gathering possibilities are very welcoming and supportive of the event arriving in Tintagel.
I am sure I am not alone in thanking the local inhabitants and businesses of Boscastle for their unstinting support for the Dark Gathering over the years, with a special mention for all their invaluable input is, of course, the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic.
That’s all for now and keep watching for further updates via this website or our Facebook page: Dark Gathering FB Page
This year saw a brief, unexpected and not-to-be-repeated Boscastle Derby which involved the Mari Lwyds in a race down to the harbour!
Even the most well ordered event can suffer from blips, miscommunication and things getting lost in translation. Our Lantern Procession this year managed to include all of these! Fortunately, we were well able to absorb all this and managed to carry on, according to most onlookers, seamlessly(!) – the worst that happened was that timings got mangled.
The Dark Gathering, which has been recently described as Cornwall’s Annual Halloween event, has almost outgrown itself in popularity. Sometimes I think that folk forget that Boscastle is a small fishing village and treat it like a town in some ways. The locals do their level best to accommodate most people’s requirements and I feel that this needs to be remembered when visiting, whether as a performer or an audience member. In a town which holds Morris events for instance, the teams are able to spread out more and there is a relaxed atmosphere regarding timings. At the Dark Gathering however we have to stick to timings as we don’t have the necessary permissions to block the highway for too long. The marshals are local volunteers and are trying their level best to help everyone safely across the road when it comes to the Procession. There are literally hundreds of people who follow the Mari Lwyds down to the Museum each year and it takes some management.
Normally what happens is that there is a small group of performers leading the way with flaming torches. This makes sure that the Procession moves at a, well… processional pace, suitable for everyone to appreciate the Mari Lwyds and the music. These torches also are a visual aide to us folk waiting at the Museum to start the tribal drumming. Due to a miscommunication/misunderstanding this year, the torch bearers were absent at the crucial time and the Procession left without them.
At the head was the redoubtable Cwmni Gwerin Pontypwl sweeping and practically galloping down to the harbour with everyone valiantly trying to keep up!
So the final result of the impromptu Boscastle Derby was:
Mari Pontypwl won by 10 lengths,
Mari Celeste a brave second,
followed by Mari Trecopr
and bringing up the rear, Mari Arianrhod.
If I’d had been forewarned I could have got Steve Podger our MC to do an animated commentary to accompany them.
In fact, we could have taken bets… No! It’s not going to happen again because we have had our heads together in the Stewards Enquiry and come up with a Cunning Plan!
Watch this space!
Prior to this Penkevyll the Land’s End Oss had heard the mesmerising and irresistible tribal drums which heralded her appearance – but this year she sent out her apprentice Teazers first to surprise the onlookers – I don’t think anyone was expecting that!
Penkevyll had no sooner emerged when we were startled to see the Mari Lwyds had already arrived on the bridge.
Thanks to our trusty Gatekeepers who kept them at bay, Penkevyll was able to claim the performance space and danced and frolicked with her Teazers for a while.
Then it was time to greet her guests who had travelled all the way from Wales to see her.
Then it was time for the Pwnco ceremony.
Now the torchbearers arrive!
The Pwnco is sung.
The Welsh contingent were in good voice for the Pwnco, and Laetitia responded wonderfully in West Cornwall dialect until eventually the Mari Lwyds gained entry to the Museum of Witchcraft & Magic to give their annual blessing.
Looks like they’re having fun! 🙂
Meanwhile outside a dramatic visitation was occurring. Suddenly the sound of war drums was heard in the still night air and, surrounded by flaming torches Tre War Venydh marched down the hill in style!
The local warband were led by the redoubtable Chieftain Sigewulf. Well, I wouldn’t want to fall foul of her – would you?
She went on to introduce her warband by name and character with an edgy humour.
The crowd were then encouraged to support their favourite warrior as they were pitted together in mortal combat. This was rather alarming at times because these were real swords and axes – not a rubber or resin sword in sight!
The fights were very exciting and there was a lot of cheering as each blow thudded on the combatants’ shields. Finally one of them was vanquished by the other warrior and fell to the ground. The wisewoman and magical healer performed remarkable feats by restoring the warriors to health following their demise. The re-enactment ended with a demonstration of a shield wall in action.
During all the excitement, the Osses and Mari Lwyds had re-emerged into the night. This included the young Oss, Morvargh, who was up way past her bedtime!
It was at this time that the atmosphere of the Dark Gathering shifted.
We sensed the Ancestors were drawing near… the dark. quickening time approached.
At this point Sarah Emery appeared to sing the now traditional lament at Summer’s End. This year she sang the haunting Traveller’s Prayer.
The Traveller’s Prayer
Praise to the moon, bright queen of the skies, Jewel of the black night, the light of our eyes, Brighter than starlight, whiter than snow, Look down on us in the darkness below.
If well you should find us then well let us stay, Be it seven times better when you make your way, Be it seven times better when we greet the dawn, So light up our way and keep us from all harm.
Give strength to the weary, give alms to the poor, To the tainted and needy five senses restore, Give song to our voices, give sight to our eyes, To see the sun bow as the new moon shall rise.
Cast your eyes downwards to our dwelling place, Three times for favour and three times for grace, Over the dark clouds your face for to see, To banish misfortune and keep Trinity.
In the name of the waters that spring from the earth, In the name of the rivers to whom they give birth, In the name of the oceans, the seven deep seas, All praise to the moon, for eternity.
I then stepped into the space to give the Ancestor Blessing. This was a role that Will Fox usually performs but sadly he was unable to be with us this Gathering and so it fell to me to fill the gap. I was wise enough to not even attempt to emulate Will’s unique style but simply went with the energy of that night and talked about the ancestors and what we can learn from them. I don’t have much recollection of what I said, but apparently I did alright judging by the feedback later.
I ended with calling Sarah back to lead the singing of an Ancestor Chant, accompanied by Chris Neno on the drum.
What followed was an utterly amazing experience that folks talked about for weeks afterwards. Here are some excerpts so that you can get a feel for the power of this chant that resonated around the valley on that Dark Gathering night.
It was thrilling to hear so many people singing and harmonising together with swaying and stamping their feet to the rhythm. So powerful. So evocative.
Laetitia found the Ancestor chant online for me as I was searching for something that everyone could join in with that was universal and of no particular persuasion. She certainly fulfilled the remit when she found this.
Ancestor Chant
In my blood In my bones I hear your voice I hear your call Ancestors dance with me Ancestors chant with me I hear your voice I hear your call
By popular demand, this is something that we will repeat each year from now on. 😀
There was only one thing that could possibly follow an experience like this – and that was the Beltane Fire Dance! This year there was a birthday amongst the performers so Mary Harber of Cwmni Gwerin Pontypwl was chosen to be the central torch bearer – she loved it! 🙂
It was time to give thanks to:
Museum of Witchcraft and Magic
Boscastle Chamber of Commerce
National Trust
Beltane Border Morris
Domesday Border Morris
Wolf’s Head and Vixen Morris
All Osses and Mari Lwyds
Cwmni Gwerin Pontypwl
Tre War Venydh
Sarah Emery and Paul Sumner
Steve Podger
All musicians, marshals and volunteers
The community of Boscastle
It was time to announce next year’s Guest Side which is to be…. <drum roll>
There was only one thing left to do on this 5th Dark Gathering and that was to
‘Haccombe to Death!’
That was it. All over for another year. The performers trailed off to get some food, ale and have a knees-up and I would imagine the audience made a bee-line for somewhere warm and sustenance also.
The next All Hallows Dark Gathering will be held on Saturday 26th October 2019. We’ll see you all there!
Over the years the Dark Gathering has gathered momentum and has been supported in its endeavours by generous donations from both the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic and Boscastle Chamber of Commerce. We feel it is time for us to start finding our own ways of funding the event through other means as well so we have begun to look at selling merchandise. This year we set that particular ball rolling by selling badges, and being rather theatrical types, we wanted to produce a specific character to sell them. Enter the Pedlar!
I chose one of our friends who had offered help, Michelle Elliot aka Selkie Shell to be the Pedlar and she was brilliant! She created a wonderful character who I believe met quite a few people over the afternoon as she had sold out in a couple of hours! However, if you wanted to buy some badges as mementos and were unable to, I have ordered a few more. Just contact me via the website: Dark Gathering Badges. There will be changes to some badges for next year so get this year’s designs while you can!
Now where were we… oh yes – the rain came down! Cwmni Gwerin Pontypwl had come all the way from Wales to perform and it appeared that they brought their own weather with them! Regardless of the foul weather they continued to perform for the more stoic members of the audience who remained. What troopers they were! However, even they had to abandon their demonstration of Welsh Dancing when it started to hail or risk concussion! Sadly I have no photos to show you of their brave performance but I do have some footage taken by our tenacious volunteer who was filming live. It also contains some charming dialogue between Gem who was filming and young Olivia who took pity on her and came over and sheltered Gem with her umbrella. Many thanks also to Simon Costin who did a similar thing for the Welsh musicians to keep them and their instruments dry. 🙂
Then 30 mins later when the Morris action was due to start again, the rain stopped. Obviously I’m glad it stopped, but I did feel a bit sorry for Cwmni Gwerin Pontypwl but when I voiced this to them they just laughed and said they were used to it as it happened all the time in Wales! In fact they enjoyed themselves so much they’re coming back next year! 🙂
I unexpectedly got to achieve an ambition of mine this Dark Gathering. Since I started to learn to play drum I’ve watched other good drummers avidly and learned from them. Chris Neno from Beltane has always been a drummer I have admired and I tentatively asked his Mum whether it was OK to join the drummers in the Beltane Fire Dance. She said that was fine and mentioned this to Chris who came over and said I could play with Beltane for the day anyway. I was thrilled and drummed with them from that point. It was awesome – like riding the crest of a wave – especially when it came to the Fire Dance!
The afternoon continued with superb performances from all the Morris sides.
Whilst I was drumming with Beltane I looked up into the sky to savour the moment, and I spotted a large ‘murder’ of crows circling and swooping overhead. It looked like they were showing great interest in Beltane’s dancing just below – and who can blame them? Magic! 🙂
Then the squire of Vixen came over and invited Laetitia to dance a Gemini reprise following their last dance. This is a great dance that involves precision and timing and it was nearly 20 years since Laetitia had last performed it. Sadly to date I have not found any footage of this performance (if anyone did film any part of this please let me know) – however, here is the dance Gemini prior to Laetitia’s input.
At least I got one photo of her in her moment of glory at the end of her performance. Well done Laetitia – proud of you! 😀
If you want to hear Laetitia’s thoughts on this go to this link:
What a brilliant way to end the afternoon session! So then it was time to take a break so we could prepare for the evening’s events which brought quite a few surprises to us all.
I had a strong feeling that the Dark Gathering 2018 would be an emotional experience, and I wasn’t wrong! There were all sorts of things going on behind the scenes that I won’t bore you with but take my word for it, everyone involved did the very best they could under trying circumstances and limited resources. As a consequence there were a few logistical hiccoughs but nothing that completely ruined the day for others, even though it gave the organisers a few stressful moments.
Just before we were about to set off to Boscastle the day before the Dark Gathering we received the following poignant message:
For the last few years my amazing husband Matt Geoffrey and I have attended the gathering in Boscastle. We were all booked for this year it’s always the highlight of our year. Sadly on Monday Matt lost his battle with cancer, he fought like a warrior to stay with us but took his last breath at 9:30pm on 22nd Oct with his mum, myself and our children around him at home where he wanted to be. I would be grateful if you would all remember him this weekend and say a blessing for his passing. The children and I cannot be there but it would be lovely to think he was being remembered.
I wrote to Matt’s wife Sarah to ask permission to publish her message and she wrote back:
I am more than happy for you to mention Matt I did manage to see some of the footage thank you so much. Matt would have been so touched that he was remembered The gathering was always a highlight of the year for our family x Matt was cremated this Monday I conducted the service myself as I wanted it to be a service fitting for such a wonderful man x I love the fact that your dedication came just before the Raven dance very fitting and danced by Matts favourite Morris side (Beltane Border Morris)x
Our little one who turned 4 the day before wanted to walk respect for daddy .
I include all this as it is a very good example of how the Dark Gathering has become more than just a folkloric get together, more than a Morris knees-up, more even than a community event. It has become something unique which was in our minds from the very start. I well remember having an important conversation with Angie Latham and Laetitia Latham-Jones on that wild, stormy night back in 2014. We were discussing the fact that although there are quite a few dark Morris sides who were also of Pagan persuasion, there were no events to honour this. That, and the fact of the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic was the ideal setting at the most powerful time of year for the spirits of the ancestors – it seemed the logical next move to have a magical folklore happening coupled with the meeting of the Osses and Mari Lwyds. The rest, as they say, is history. Recently Laetitia mentioned to me that there was something about the Dark Gathering that reminded her of the movie Field of Dreams.
Replace the ghostly images of the baseball players with Mari Lwyds and Dark Morris and there you have it! 🙂
Chris White summed it up well when he wrote recently about the Dark Gathering:
How the time’s flown! The event has grown so fast it’s as if it’s been eagerly waiting to happen! In addition to all the hard work and organization that goes into it, it seems to have an organic energy of its own, as if it has a personality of sorts the way a rare few do. You’ve made something wonderful and I feel privileged just to have seen its beginnings and even more so to be involved. Thank you so much. Lots of love. Xxxxx
So on to the day itself. We knew from the weather forecast that this was likely to be a cold and changeable weekend, so most folk were dressed accordingly. The first performances started at 2 pm right up the top of the village at the Napoleon Inn. The Mari Lwyds and Cwmni Gwerin Pontypwl gave lively performances for which they were duly paid with the traditional libations of cake and ale. Then they slowly descended the Old Hill calling at various households on the way supported by their trusty musicians who travelled up from Penzance to play for the Mari Lwyds – thanks guys and gals! In fact so impressed have we been by the volunteer musicians that we thought it was about time they had a band name, so… hereafter to be known as Bagas an Werin Mari Lwyd – (translation from Cornish: Mari Lwyd Folk Band) Their final destination at the end of the afternoon was the Cobweb Inn where they performed for the customers and a good time was had by all!
Meanwhile back at the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic something was stirring…! 😉
Our planned warm-up act was to be the Salt Sisters but sadly they had to withdraw at the last minute due to the illness of one of the duo. Domesday Morris asked whether they could use this opportunity to perform and as I couldn’t see any reason not to, I agreed. The crowd gathered swiftly as usual and once Beltane and Wolfshead & Vixen had set up their band equipment, we officially started the 5th All Hallows Gathering. Once Steve Podger our trusty MC had opened proceedings with his usual flair, I stepped in and dedicated the Dark Gathering 2018 to the memory of Matt Geoffrey. Beltane then led the afternoon’s entertainment starting with a new dance called Three Ravens. They were, as ever thrilling and dynamic to watch.
Beltane Border Morris dance Tregeseal
Next to perform was the mesmerising Wolfs Head and Vixen Morris. You get two for the price of one here with the brooding intensity of the Wolfs Head men, and the slick precision of the whirling Vixen women. This is not to mention the trance-like rhythms of the side’s Band. WH&V who hail from Rochester in Kent, are a well renowned side whose claim to fame is of being the very first gothic Morris team. They have built an enviable reputation over the last 23 years and we were delighted to have them as our Guest Side this year.
One of the dances that Wolf’s Head perform is called the Four Seasons and is considered to be a form of fertility dance. Usually a female is chosen to stand in the centre and Laetitia Latham-Jones was chosen this time. This might have had something to do with the fact that Laetitia was a member of Wolf’s Head and Vixen back in the Nineties so this was a nice gesture from them.
Much to our surprise the Daily Mail decided to send a photographer this year who took the following image and tried to stir up the blacking issue again (yawn) and, amongst a lot of other ludicrous statements, described Laetitia as “wearing ghoulish looking horns and black eye make-up”! Terrifying isn’t she? 😉
Then came Domesday Morris. What a entertaining and fun loving side they were! Full of energy, they injected a vitality into the proceedings which made a suitable contrast to the dark mystery of the other two sides. Their band was led by Lisa Jarvest, a very talented melodeon player, and they played lively tunes that had all our feet tapping. Listening to their music and watching Domesday dance, you couldn’t help but smile. 🙂
The dancers were led by the irrepressible Bruce Jarvest.
I also have to mention the children at this point. Who couldn’t fail to smile at these winsome kids in their tatters and blacking?
These kids went around the crowd asking for donations for the Museum of Witchcraft and Magic. They raised the princely sum of £60! Impressive!
We were going to use this maid’s image on our poster but sadly when it came to it, it didn’t work artistically speaking. However, we were determined to have it on the website because the pure exuberance expressed here said so much about Domesday Morris and the energy of the Dark Gathering that day. 🙂
Then suddenly at 4 pm when there was a scheduled break in the Morris dancing, the heavens opened up and the rain hammered down!
The Dark Gathering 