The Mellstock Band: Frosty Lanes & Fireside Cheer

Christmas music and tales from Thomas Hardy’s Wessex performed in costume. Singing and playing songs, carols and dances from original sources on fiddle, clarinet, concertina and serpent.

An old-style rural Christmas – carol singers trudging through the snow on Christmas Eve, travellers seeking refuge from the cold, shepherds outdoors guarding their flocks, and by way of contrast, warm cottages, village merrymakings and convivial ale houses. In this show the Mellstock Band visit all of these, with tales from Thomas Hardy and his comtemporaires brought to life in song and music.

The band perform in their 1840s Sunday-best clothes, singing and playing songs, carols and dances from original sources on village band instruments of the time – fiddle, clarinet, concertina and serpent.

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