celebrating peace and reconciliation


Nelson Mandela said –  “No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”  He also said - “It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world.”


John Lennon said ‘Imagine’ and ‘Give peace a chance’. In 1969 when Pete Seeger led 500,000 people in the singing of ‘Give Peace a chance’, a process of change began that brought an end to the war in Vietnam.


Brian Eno -  “ I believe that singing is the key to long life, a good figure,  a stable temperament,  increased intelligence,  new friends,  super self-confidence,  heightened sexual attractiveness, and a better sense of humour !


Joan Baez said  -  “I was fortunate to have been born with this voice, to use it in ways that lend credibility to traditional music and beyond, and also to further the cause of nonviolence.  Social change without music would be void of soul. Nonviolence without music, meditation, action, and a willingness to take risks probably doesn't exist. In my mind's eye I can see the black children leaving a church to knowingly be arrested, singing at the top of their lungs, "I ain't gonna let nobody turn me around. . . ." I'm proud to have sung with them, and with many others in times of social change, political revolt, great deprivation, and the attendant joys, fears, and sorrows”


Ghandi said – “Be the change that you want to see in the world”


Our motto is


   Whatever you do, Don’t do Nothing!  

Peace through Folk celebrates Peace, Friendship and Reconciliation

through folk music and related arts.

Singing, and making music is a great way for ordinary people to make a difference. And it’s a great way to spend time in good company. Singing has changed the world and can continue to do so.

The Abolition of Slavery * The end of the Vietnamese war  

Civil Rights Laws in USA * The end of Apartheid

Just listen to some sounds of persuasion and passion past and present


- in Nkosi Sikele – a simple C19th school song by a Enoch Sontonga.

                                  Think about its eventual impact!

- in We shall overcome sung by Pete Seeger  
 - in Sidney Carter’s C13th message of Sing John Ball – sung at our folk gathering  - in ‘For the dead men’ by Lucy Ward

- in Grace Petrie’s  ‘Bonfires in the streets’     
- in ‘I am Malala’  




Music makes a difference!