Folk festival bars Morris men’s ‘racist’ black faces
Organisers ‘stuck in middle’ as campaigners take offence while dancers complain that an innocent tradition is being betrayed
ONE of the country’s biggest festivals of its kind has banned Morris dancers from performing with their faces blacked up, after complaints that the tradition is racist.
Shrewsbury Folk Festival will no longer book acts who wear the paint, it announced. This weekend’s event will be the last at which Morris dancers can pursue a custom dating back at least five centuries.
The decision has angered traditionalists, who accused the organisers of “trampling on our culture” and believe they should have dismissed complaints of racism.
The dancers insist there are “no racial connotations” to the practice and that they have “never wanted to upset people”.
However, a campaign group, Fairness, Respect, Equality Shropshire (Fresh), said the ban showed sensitivity “to a changed social climate”.
Fresh said they had contacted the festival organisers after a complaint from a member of the public. They suggested dancers, whose teams are known as “sides”, use another colour of face paint or patterned makeup instead. The origins of the tradition, and of Morris dancing itself, are lost to history, but there are a number of differing theories, including that black face paint was merely a disguise to protect workers from their lords. Sandra Surtees, the festival director, said that the organisers had found themselves caught in the middle of the argument. She said: “The use of full-face black make up is an ageold tradition, particularly within Border Morris [a strand of the tradition from the English side of the Welsh border]. The Morris movement has always evolved over time and some sides have taken their own decisions to move away from using full-face black make up to other forms of colour and disguise. “We have been approached by one group that has requested we no longer book sides that use full-face black make up and another that has asked us not to change our policy.”
She added: “The festival has never wished to cause offence to any person and as such, from 2017, we will no longer book sides that use full-face black make up.
“We are aware that this is an emotive issue and it is not a decision we have made without a great deal of thought.”
Only one of the three sides booked for this year’s festival continues to follow the tradition. Jonathan Hyams, of Fresh, said: “We entirely understand the argument from Morris dancing communities that this is something that goes back to tradition.
“However there are ways of celebrating this other than blacking up, which has very strong connotations of racism.”
Some dancers and residents took to social media to express their disappointment.
One, Jon Roads, said: “It’s terrible that PC nonsense is being used to repress our traditional customs in this way. These ancient traditions are at risk of dying out completely.”
Matthew Waterhouse posted: “Anybody with any sense whatsoever would have dismissed the claims of racism with a reasonable explanation of history and tradition.”
David Bearne added: “This is a very weak response to ill-informed criticism. They could, at least, have brokered some dialogue between Fresh and, say, the Morris Federation so that there was a better understanding of the issues and concerns on both sides and a possibility of reaching an outcome acceptable to all concerned.”
It is not the first time that black facepaint in Morris dancing has caused controversy.
David Cameron was criticised in some quarters, when he was prime minister, after posing with Morris dancers in blacked-up faces in Banbury, near his Oxfordshire constituency.