Folklore Rising: An Artist's Journey through the British Ritual Year

Ben Edge is a rising star of both the art world and the current folk renaissance. He has travelled the length and breadth of Britain recording the weird and wonderful folk customs alive in communities all over the country.
He joins us to discuss his new book, Folklore Rising, sharing his paintings and photographs, along with real-life stories, anecdotes and legends.
He talks about how connecting with our incredible living folklore helped him recover from depression, and also introduces his idea of folklore activism, suggesting that the current massive resurgence of interest in contemporary folk culture represents ordinary people's desire to find new ways of envisioning community and caring for and connecting to nature.

This exclusive and very special evening promises to be a unique insight into his creative process, as well as an exploration in to the amazing and wildly popular folk customs of the British ritual year.

Ben Edge will be in conversation with Dr Andy Letcher, author of 'Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom' (Faber and Faber, 2006), Senior Lecturer in Psychology (Psychedelics) at the University of Exeter, Senior Lecturer in Engaged Ecology at Schumacher College, folk musician, and author of a range of academic papers and book chapters on subjects as diverse as the new animism, paganism, bardism, environmental protest, fairies, psychedelics, the Green Man, and shamanism.

This event will be followed by a book signing.

Ben's book will be for sale at its cost price of £25 during the event, or we are offering a special pre-order deal of £30 for a signed book & ticket option.

"It's time to rediscover the real and this book tells you where to find it. Indispensable." – Jarvis Cocker

"Full of stunning images and rich with first-hand experience of Britain's folk customs, this is a potent tome indeed from an authentic voice within the folkloric realm" – Weird Walk

"Ben's exquisite artwork adorns each page of this magnificent journey through the folk traditions of the British Isles. Ben has not only been instrumental in painstakingly recording folk history for prosperity but also in opening up its magic to a new generation, allowing it to continue to flourish and ignite imaginations to come!" – Maxine Peake, actor

"I travelled in these pages from one end of Britain to the other immersed in Ben Edge's storytelling and his art, and I've learning as much about my contemporaries as I have about the roots of folklore […] it's through Ben's artist response that the meaning of each tradition has an incredible contemporary potency." – Sharon Ament, Director of the Museum of London

"A vibrant celebration of all that the establishment do not control or understand." – John Higgs, novelist, cultural historian and author of books including William Blake vs the World and Watling Street