| Where: | Flamborough, Yorkshire usually starting after the Dip at North Landing, then the Rose & Crown in the High Street and ending at the Dog & Duck Square |
| When: | Boxing Day |
| Time: | Typically from noon at Bempton, 1pm Rose & Crown, Dog & Duck Square around 3 pm but see Helpful Hints |
Boxing Day is when the Flamborough Sword Dancers perform around their home village. With origins in the local fishing community, the team are very well established and wear appropriate dark blue fishermens jerseys with white trousers- even some of the dance moves are said to be derived from threading actions used when making and reparing their fishing nets. The local children are taught the moves at school in order to pass the tradition on to the next generation and it obviously pays off as the junior team is a prizewinning one in the field, and many of the mature dancers had their first introduction to the activity when they were schoolchildren. They perform with wooden swords outside each of the local pubs including the Rose & Crown and ending at the Royal Dog & Duck.
Helpful Hints
The dancers were aiming to have their own website up and running which will include the full itinerary for the day – will add the link when it’s available but I haven’t found it yet. The given times are an approximate guide from the year we visited- timings & venues may vary a little from one year to another so check the Twitter link for this year’s schedule (it appears quite near the due date). Typically they perform at around noon at White Horse (Bempton) then in the village – 1pm Rose & Crown 2:30pm Victoria Club 3pm Dog and Duck Square.
The Dancers sometimes also support the relatively new charity fundraiser, the Flamborough Boxing Day Dip so you may catch them before their regular tour, at South Landing from 10.45 with the Dip at 11.
Click here for more: http://www.rapper.org.uk/relations/longsword.php
Click here for the dancers’ Twitter link: https://twitter.com/flamborosword?lang=en-gb
The full schedule usually appears on the Sword Dance Union’s facebook page in early December along with other seasonal events: https://www.facebook.com/sworddanceunion/
Are the above times and venues correct for 2022?
Hi Don , The times I put on the post were from when we visited a few years ago so I’ve tweaked the article a bit to make it clearer, and to suggest that visitors check the dancers’ Twitter link near the time for the current schedule- it doesn’t vary too much from one year to another but whatever changes are made will be on there and might save you hanging about in the cold waiting for too long!
Hope you enjoy it,
Averil