Martin Green (Lau) warmly invites you all to Bring In The May; come and celebrate the changing seasons and the revolutions of the Earth.

For thousands of years people have gathered at dawn to celebrate the changing of the seasons, and for unknown hundreds of those years people have done this through the medium of morris dancing. Join us in celebrating The First of May, The People’s day.

Traditionally morris teams dance in the dawn on May Day and once again lockdown won’t stop them. The ground-breaking Boss Morris will lead massed dancing for any who wish to join them; Eliza Carthy will join from Yorkshire for a song; Maddy Prior (Steeleye Span) will lead the singing of the May song Hal-an-Tow; and Ghanaian dancer Adie Baako will join Martin in Scotland for a traditional dance marking the changing of the seasons.

Wear Green for The Earth and Red for Its Struggles. All welcome to join from home (muted!) as we celebrate together; apart but not alone.

For those who want to join in at home, your ticket confirmation will include a link to download Boss’s patented Hot Rum recipe, song lyrics for the morning, and notation for a massed May Carol which will be pre-recorded – please do submit a recording yourself if you’d like to.

In a new documentary for BBC Radio 4, Lau accordionist and Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Martin Green embarks on a very personal exploration of the ancient associations of music and dance with altered states of consciousness. Dancers at Dawn traces a line from Martin’s early noughties rave epiphany back to his childhood memories of a dawn Morris dance, both events having taken place by Wandlebury Hill, a site rich in ancient myth. 

Dancers at Dawn will be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Thursday 29 April at 11:30am, then available via BBC Sounds. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000vhkf

Live to your Living Room are delighted to produce this event in partnership with Lepus Productions and Oxford Contemporary Music.