Fezziwig are possibly the best little ceilidh band in Norfolk!
We’re are also one of the best little ceilidh bands in Suffolk!
And one of the best little ceilidh bands in Cambridgeshire too!
Fezziwig were established in 2003 and have been playing for ceilidh dancing and barn dances ever since, in Norwich, Ipswich, Bury St Edmunds, Lowestoft, King’s Lynn, Cambridge, and all points in between. We cover most of East Anglia: Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire.
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After the disruption of 2020/21, Fezziwig are up and running again! We had full and successful years in 2022 and ’23 and enquiries are now coming in for this year. We’ve played at some wonderfully grand venues and some homely, friendly village halls. We did weddings, birthdays, family parties and some open-to-the-public ceilidhs, concluding in October 2023 with a sell-out, massively attended one in Norwich. Our fiddle-playing Wunderkind, Dante, has settled in well and got several well-deserved plaudits for his brilliant playing.
Please get in touch if you have a wedding, birthday or anniversary coming up, or if you’re planning a ceilidh for any reason, even if you haven’t fixed the venue yet. We’re happy to take provisional bookings.
#ceilidh band #norfolk #suffolk #cambridgeshire
Please see our Contacts page to get in touch.
Our current line-up: Ruth (melodeon), Antonella (caller, plus whistle and percussion), Dante (violin)
Who are we? You’d have to go a long way to find a dance caller to compare with Antonella, who is one of the most admired callers in East Anglia. We sometimes hear reports of callers being bossy or school-teacherish! Antonella is the antithesis of that. She is equally empathetic whether explaining the dance-steps to complete beginners, young children or experienced dancers. She has a large collection of dances, some simple, some more complex, and she has written dances of her own too. Her philosophy is that a ceilidh should be fun, and it doesn’t matter at all if you make mistakes! Just laugh and carry on! She plays percussion and whistle. Ruth is a founder-member of the band, and has been described as our ‘flash melodeon player’. Her toe-tapping squeezebox style will get you in the mood for dancing; while our newest member, Dante, adds youthful excitement and verve with his fiddle-playing.
(We can, incidentally, simply play pleasant, gentle background music for your party or event if, for any reason, you don’t want an entire evening of dancing.)
We are a great little team, and as there are just three of us, we can keep costs down. See our Contact page or message us on Facebook.
Why book a ceilidh band? Presumably, as you’re on this website, you already know what you want. But just in case you’re still wondering, a ceilidh is an evening of country dances from England, Scotland and Ireland. No need to wear a cowboy hat, unless you really want to! It is an ideal way to celebrate a wedding, a special birthday or an anniversary. In some of the dances you change partners several times, and this is especially good for party guests to get to know each other. Ceilidhs are fun for all ages, and dancing is a brilliant way to work out, helps you stay fit and burn off the calories when you’ve been celebrating with a big meal! And if you’ve never done it before, don’t worry, as we have Antonella! (See above.) Ceilidhs, or barn dances (we don’t really distinguish between the two terms), are also an excellent idea for fund-raisers. Or simply an evening of Strictly Come Ceilidh, to celebrate Valentine’s Day, May Day, Midsummer, Harvest Time, Hallowe’en, Bonfire Night, Christmas/Yuletide or New Year. Or whatever, whenever! We play for ceilidhs anywhere in Norfolk, Suffolk or Cambridgeshire!
And by the way, we’re a well-established band and we’re not doing this simply as a hobby to amuse ourselves! We enjoy what we do, but at the same time we try to be professional in our approach, aiming to tailor each evening to the occasion, to suit the requirements of the client. And we think we must be doing something right; in recent years we’ve been doing more and more repeat bookings, i.e. people we’ve played for once come back and ask us to do it again. For example, we’ve recently confirmed Wroxham’s biennial French town-twinning dinner/dance for a fifth time, and we played for the annual Valentine’s Dance at Rockland for six years in a row! In fact, you could say we have an ever-increasing number of Fezzifans throughout East Anglia!
PS: Boring but important: you may like to know that we currently have PAT certificates for our electrical equipment. (We can, however, play acoustically when appropriate, for smaller venues. Please contact us to discuss this if you think it is an option.)
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Why Fezziwig? The Fezziwig family appear in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, in the scene where Mr and Mrs Fezziwig hold a party for their employees, as Scrooge remembers when he visits his past:-
‘In they all came, one after another; some shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some pushing, some pulling…. Away they all went, twenty couple at once, hands half round and back again the other way; down the middle and up again; round and round in various stages of affectionate grouping….’
In other words, they have a ball! The Fezziwigs provide an evening of merriment and dancing to the delight of one and all. Which is, of course, exactly what Fezziwig Ceilidh Band aim to do. After all, there’s nothing like a nice bit of affectionate grouping!