Tickets are now available for Reelfolk Day of Dance on 9th September at Burton-in-Kendal with caller Trevor Monson and music Portland Drive. See the event for full details of the day  and where to buy tickets.

So far, so good! We thoroughly enjoyed playing at London Barndance Contra in March to the excellent calling of Louise Siddons. Then Brian and Elaine as Portland Duo spent a lovely couple of days being part of the inaugural May Heydays festival in Evesham at the beginning of May. Photo courtesy of Mike Tozer

Next up is the full Portland Drive playing mainly English, but with some American thrown in for good measure, at Lichfield Folk Festival in June. You can also find us leading the musicians’ workshop and leading the band for the final Come All Ye on the Sunday afternoon.

The website has been updated with a number of new bookings for 2022. We’re looking forward to playing for London Barndance Contra in March with Louise Siddons, then Lichfield Folk Festival in June, and 3rd time lucky (we hope!) for Portland Duo at Willand Folk Dance Club in October. There may also be another folk festival in the offing so keep an eye open for news on that in the new year.

Well after having the disappointment of having two events cancelled this Autumn due to Covid, we are very excited to be looking forward to playing again, firstly for Nottingham Folk Dance Club on 13th November with caller Charlotte Rich-Griffin (a new caller to us), followed on December 4th by the Christmas Dance for Cannock Folk Dance Club with Caller Geoff Cubitt. We can’t wait! Hopefully we’ll see some of you at one or other of those dances.

We have decided that, as a number of dance club organisers like to shorten the name of Portland Drive Duo (Brian and Elaine) to Portland Duo, then that might be the better option. So Portland Drive Duo will now be known as Portland Duo, which will also help to differentiate it from the full band name of Portland Drive. 🙂

Because the May Day bank holiday date has been changed for 2020, May Heydays Festival is having to curtail their festival by one day. Unfortunately this has meant that Portland Drive was not able to be accommodated in a shortened programme. The good news is that we are booked to play at the 2021 event over the full 3 and a bit days! We are obviously disappointed not to be playing in Evesham in 2020 but looking forward to a full programme in 2021. However, you can catch us at Lichfield Folk Festival in June!

Portland Drive had a great start to the year from winter in Hampton-in-Arden and Bristol Contra into Spring at Lincoln Folk Dance Club. We had a very enjoyable dance in Lincoln with caller Neil Stuart, who gave us lots of new music to play which we played in true PD style! We are taking a break now until the Autumn as each of us have plenty to keep us busy with not only a variety of music playing but cake baking, singing, children and holidays!

Portland Drive made a great start to the new year playing for Hampton-in-Arden FDG with caller Lynne Render. Neither band or caller had appeared there before but we all had a fantastic evening. Lynne called a variety of dances which allowed PD to play in a variety of styles which we loved. From the feedback I’m sure there’ll be more opportunities to play there in the future.

Great weekend playing at Southam Gathering. So many people loving what we do, whether contra or English! Yay!

We are delighted to welcome a new member to the Portland Drive family! Baby Alice Freya Dunphy was born on Sunday 28th February 2016. Many congratulations to Kathryn and her husband James!