Who are we?
Berkshire Bedlam, a renowned Cotswold Morris dance team from Wokingham in Berkshire, were formed in 1977, and perform a wide range of dances. While some are based on the legendary Leafield dances of Oxfordshire, the majority of today’s repertoire is original compositions put together in recent years. Whatever the dance, BB’s aim is to perform with gusto and spirit, and to present spectacular and original performances. Do we succeed? – come and see us to find out!
2026 – more great events as we near 50!
The 2026 season is upon us and after performing at a range of great events in 2025, we’re looking forward to more of the same this year! With last year’s newcomers to the team fully bedded in, we’re attending a number of festivals and weekends of dance all over the country, plus several evenings out with other great local teams. And during the year we’re putting in hand preparations for our 50th anniversary year in 2027 – what a ride it’s been so far!
You can read more about what we’ve been doing recently (and during the last 49 years) on our Posts pages.
2025’s Bunfight – another memorable evening!
Our annual Bunfight always features a themed ceilidh with an excellent band, brilliant caller and a showpiece non-Morris spot based on our latest bizarre idea. Our latest one came last November, with the Diatonics again providing some specially curated music for the Ugly Bug Ball, along with ‘Mr. Marveloso’ Nick Walden as caller. All the usual Bunfight entertainments were in place including Bedlam Bingo and a Kraftwerk inspired show spot including ‘Das Hokey Cokey’, ‘Kopf, Schulter, Knie und Fuss’ and ‘Ich bin eine kliene Teekanne’. You had to be there, really – and why not be in 2026 when we’ll be doing it all over again on Sat 28th Nov 2026!
BB in the Media and elsewhere!
We’ve popped up in all sorts of unusual places and odd guises over the years – here are pictures of a few of them:
And as well as the events we have pictures of, we’ve been asked not to mention a guest appearance at one of Sting’s birthday parties, along with a selection of celebrity guests including David Walliams, Robert Downey Jr, Kevin Spacey, and others, so we’re not going to mention that.
See our Media Page for more details of some of these, plus links to a range of YouTube clips of our morris performances, some unforgettable special spots, pop videos and more! There are also links to DVDs featuring us, so that you can also have a little BB at home with you!
More about Morris:
If you would like to find out more about other Morris sides, or Morris dancing in general, try these links :
Morris Side Finder : a UK wide guide to find teams in all parts of the country (Morris Federation teams only).
Wikipedia’s Morris Dance Page : a reasonable explanation of the origins, history, terminology and different styles of morris.