"I thought I'd be terrible. Everyone was lovely."

"I'd been looking for a hobby that wasn't a screen and wasn't the gym. I came along to watch one Friday and got accidentally roped into doing the easy bits of Constant Billy. Six weeks later I was buying my own bell-pads."

"I play the fiddle, and I'd just retired and was missing playing with people. Someone said: morris bands are always after new musicians. They were right. I haven't paid for a pint in three years."

"I'm a woman in my fifties who wanted to do something physical that wasn't yoga. I assumed I'd be the oldest by twenty years. I'm not even in the top half."

"My wife dragged me along. I went under protest. By the second practice I was reading up on Welsh Border traditions on my lunch break. We've now been on three folk festivals together."

"I'd just moved to the area and didn't know anyone. I read about the local side online, emailed the Bagman on a whim. Within a month I knew thirty people by name. Within six months I was at a wedding."

"I assumed I'd embarrass myself. I did. So did everyone else. We laughed about it. We had a pie afterwards. It was, genuinely, one of the better Fridays I've had in years."