Overview
Members
Bookings
Audio Samples

For a positive impact that will long be remembered ... schools, government entities, business conventions, corporate gatherings, holiday events, parades, private parties, weddings, community groups, charities, and festivals can take their special events up a notch by hiring the Earthly Delights Band or the Bordonian Heritage Dance Troupe to provide a dramatic, inspirational and educational boost through "in character" appearances, dance demonstrations and involving the audience in dance events!

Earthly Delights is one of Australia's most inventive and interactive folk-world-medieval music bands- and one with enormous cross generational appeal. For profiles of the musicians who play with the band (and there are more than those pictured below) check out the Members page of this chapter. For information on how you might engage us to perform for your next wedding, party, dance or function, check the Bookings page. For information on how we might help you to organise and run a dance, bush dance or party dance see our Organising an Event page. For a quick overview of the band, however, read on. There are also photos from a selection of engagements below.

Founded in Canberra in 1995 by a group of local musicians, Earthly Delights has been from beginning heavily influenced by the European bagpipe and hurdy-gurdy tradition, particularly from central France and Hungary. Alongside this, however, the band maintains a very strong repertoire of English traditional and self–composed dance music.

Earthly Delights has established itself as a first class dance band, and is a major presence on the concert and function scene. Since being founded in 1995 this Canberra-based band has filled hundreds of different public and private bills including weddings (Medieval, Scottish, Irish, English, indoor and outdoor garden weddings), parties, folk festivals, folk dances, dances, galleries and exhibition openings, conferences, Floriade, St Patrick's Day gigs, Old English Fayres, Medieval Feasts, French & Hungarian events, open gardens, school dances/fairs/fetes, shopping centre launches and bush dances (including medieval bush dances!) in Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and at the coast - for more on these see Past Events.

Their instrumentation and performance style has enabled them to perform as a 3, 4 or 5 piece, with or without P.A. equipment, from the floor or from a stage, wandering or standing, indoor or outdoor (for more on some of their rare medieval instruments see Instruments).

Band members have always dressed appropriate to the character of the function, fitted the music to the need of the moment and programmed dances to suit the nature of the event. They are very versatile and have catered for every conceivable audience from the gentile to the riotous, from ones wanting to sit and listen to ones wanting to rage. When it comes to dancing - whether as hired band at other people's parties and events or as presenters of own workshops and events, they have offered novices and connoisseurs alike wonderfully memorable times - tailing what they offer to fit the group.

The band has indeed become well-known for being able to entertain people of all ages with both fine music and fun dancing (to discover the band close up, come along to an up-coming event). The band can travel interstate to perform and is also able to provide costumed heritage historical dance displays alongside a band performance.

The Canberra Times has referred to the band's 'high standard of music' and John Garden's 'expert dance leading' and the Canberra Chronicle to their act as a 'sound and visual delight'. There have also been many very favourable overseas reviews of their music (for more see CDs & Books).

The musicians are not only accomplished at playing dance tunes from many different European traditions, but also at crossing traditional boundaries, mixing medieval and other instruments and blending Anglo-Celtic, Central European and other musical styles to produce exhilarating new music. Their 300 plus original tunes and 150 plus original dances are just the tip of a much bigger repertoire (for audio clips of some of the former go to the Tune Index).

We look forward to meeting or hearing from you some day!