Unicorn Magazine supported folk music and dance since its foundation by Alan Creamer and Theo Thomas in 1983. Some 30 years later, new editors took over when Alan retired and until 2021Sandra Lawes ran the publication single-handed. A combination of Covid and a happy change in Sandra’s domestic circumstances meant that she found herself unable to commit the necessary time to the magazine and advertised for a replacement editor.
I have always picked up the Unicorn Magazine when possible and was sad to hear of its possible demise though was unable to contemplate becoming the editor of such a publication owing to my heavy involvement with Royston Arts Festival as its ‘Chair’. That was in early 2021 but after some discussion about the future of Unicorn Magazine Sandra kindly agreed to hand over the operation to me* in June 2021 to continue as a website under the rechristened name of Unicorn Folk. She continued to provide advice and nurse me through the first year or so of the new website for which I was very grateful.
Now, in my fifth year of running Unicorn Folk, I find myself again as Chair of Creative Royston which runs Royston Arts Festival. However, I am still able to devote some time to running the website and generally promoting folk music in its various forms. The focus now is on most of the traditional Unicorn Magazine catchment area of Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, and now Essex, with some overlap into Norfolk and Suffolk and the national folk scene given that the online format makes Unicorn Folk easily accessible to advertisers and folk enthusiasts in other parts of the UK.
One major development that took place over a couple of years was my regular presentation of a radio show on Royston Radio until its untimely demise in June 2025. That show, Filby’s Folk, is now a regular podcast on Unicorn Folk and devoted to folk music both traditional and contemporary and in its various forms such as Folk Rock, Indie, Celtic and European folk. I aim to put out a new show roughly every fortnight.
Future aims: The arts industry, music in general and the folk world in particular have all been affected by the Covid pandemic. Finances are even tighter for folk organisations now and the viability of folk musicians and venues has been adversely affected. In order to counter one aspect of this unwelcome situation I am currently running Unicorn Folk as a not-for-profit enterprise and anticipate that will continue as long as I am able to do so. Those listings that were ‘Free’ in the Unicorn Magazine will continue to be free on the Unicorn Folk website and have been extended in range. The cost of other advertisements has been cut substantially, particularly for the benefit of grass roots folk clubs, on whose existence I believe the future of folk music depends and also for the benefit of festivals which are also finding that times are rather hard! However, I am also trying to keep the principle of paid advertisements alive in order to fund the operation so that it may be handed over to someone else in due course as will be necessary at some stage given that I am now in my mid 70s. I will therefore continue to charge very modest fees for certain ‘Featured Festivals & Concerts’ and some other adverts.
More information can be found in the Advertisers Agreement which you can read by clicking HERE.
If you have read this far then I would be very grateful to anyone who spreads the word about Unicorn Folk to potential viewers, folk audiences, musicians and Morris and Dance sides who are entitled to a FREE listing of their activities if they submit details in the requested format.
Thank you to anyone who supports Unicorn Folk in any way at all whether you be advertiser, reader, organiser, musician, dancer or general folk enthusiast!
Carl Filby, 2026
* Biographical note: I really did fall in love with folk music after listening to Fairport’s ‘Liege & Lief’ album, bought unheard on a whim from a friend. I Morris-danced my way through a Sociology course at Bath University in the ’70s organising numerous Ceilidhs, dance sessions and a summer tour of Jersey along the way. I started Royston MusicFest in 2016 as part of Royston Arts Festival and I have been the ‘Chair’ or Secretary of Creative Royston, the not-for-profit organisation which runs the arts festival for the last 14 years. I built and administer this and the Royston Arts Festival and MusicFest websites and spend far too much of my time on my laptop! Otherwise, I can often be found hanging around Royston Live (Royston Folk Club as was) and organised the judging of their Young Folk Artist Competitions in 2017 & 2018 both supported by Creative Royston which put up the second prize of £250. More recently, much of my time has been taken up with creating my own podcasts and maintaining the Unicorn Folk website. I also enjoy rugby and football, in particular, usually on the TV these days, and I like real ale (and red wine!). Yes, I do have a beard, but grew mine long before the likes of David Beckham and others made them popular. 🙂