St Michael's Folk Evening is an annual event, held on the first Wednesday of July*.

It brings together lots of the people and groups involved in folk music and dance in the St Albans area, to perform in the historic St Michael's village setting.

Eleven dance groups are expected to strut their stuff in 30+ open-air shows, while the four pubs play host to a variety of live folk-based music.

St Michael's Street is closed to traffic at 8 pm, and for the next two hours it becomes the venue for up to five simultaneous dance shows. There's another dance site in the car park of the Blue Anchor; that show should finish at 10 pm too, but some of the dancers don't ever seem to want to stop!

In the pubs, the music tends to go on till audience and musicians are thrown out.

Usually, we get fine weather, and the evening attracts large crowds, with St Michael's village sometimes full to overflowing. Unusually, nobody asks the audience for money; all the musicians and dancers perform for FREE!

There's (some) food and (plenty of) drink to be had from the pubs.

All in all, it's a great way to spend the evening of the first Wednesday in July, except that in 2010 it's Wednesday, 30th June, to avoid clashes with the World Cup.