A Labour-led council has pulled funding for morris dancers after they were accused of wearing ‘blackface’ – even though they were wearing grey face paint.
Sandbach Town Council voted to remove £6,000 of funding to the local group for the next two years, which goes towards the hosting of an annual Day of Dance event.
The event sees morris dancers from across England and Wales perform to win the Sandbach Stick.
The event began in 2010 and ran until 2017, before it was brought back just last year.
Morris dancers traditionally used to wear blackface but most groups ditched the 500-year-old tradition in 2023.
It is believed black soot was historically worn by the English folk dancers as a disguise so they could beg for money without getting in trouble with the law.
Most of the 12 groups at the Day of the Dance event decided against face paint, but three teams wore paint coloured red, green and grey, Sandbach Day of Dance Committee said.
Now the future of the event is in doubt once again after councillor Sandrene Wright brought a motion to cut funding from the group.
A morris dance event in Sandbach has seen its funding cut after a ‘blackface’ row, even though dancers were wearing grey face paint
Cllr Wright said: ‘Saying it was grey, not black, is just semantics.
‘I didn’t believe it was inclusive. They haven’t followed the council’s rules or diversity policy.’
At a meeting of the Town Council, the mayor Cllr John Arnold added: ‘I would like to begin this item with an apology.
‘Sandbach Town Council did not organise this event but we did fund it and it’s clear that some people were very offended.
‘As mayor I would like to apologise to those people. We will endeavour to improve our policies and processes to better ensure that events supported by this council are inclusive to all in the future.’
The decision has sparked fury from the committee who argued that they were not made aware of anyone who was offended.
In a statement on Facebook, a spokesperson for the group said: ‘To date, there have been no negative comments made on the Sandbach Day of Dance Facebook Page (It’s a public page with 463 Followers and has received 207,995 views in the last 90 days).
‘There has been one negative comment made regarding the Morris sides where our posts have been shared in other Facebook groups.
Some morris dancers at the Sandbach Day of Dance event wore grey face paint
‘Sandbach Life is a public group with over 51,000 members. Only one negative comment from an individual
‘One article was printed in the Sandbach Chronicle newspaper. This was based on a complaint shared with the newspaper and follow-on conversations by the reporter.’
Residents also backed the event on social media and criticised the decision made by the council.
One wrote: ‘It’s totally unbelievable that a day of such fun and joy can be turned into a complete council fiasco.
Another said: ‘Just unbelievable, and the council want people to visit the town but to stop an event that would draw lots of people to visit they have declined funding.’
‘I was and still remain absolutely appalled at how the council handled this matter’ another user added, ‘I hope the Day of Dance continues for many a year, traditional and atmospheric and fun, which seems to be frowned on by some.’
The Day of Dance Committee blasted councillors for voting to remove funding for the event.
They arugued that Cllr Wright ‘admitted that she did not like Morris dancing and had “trawled the internet” looking for images to support her allegation of black faced performers.
The committee also claimed councillors used archive footage of morris dancers wearing ‘blackface’, which has since stopped due to the offence caused.
They also criticised councillors for ‘not declaring their association and membership of BLM Sandbach or Black Mums of Cheshire’.
Following the verdict of the council, the committee said: ‘We, the Sandbach Day of Dance organising committee are humbled by the outpouring of support we have received.
‘This support is from the residents of Sandbach and surrounding areas but also, we have received support from businesses on social media and direct messages.
‘We are collectively however, astounded by the poor council processes, libellous allegations of financial misconduct, incredibly poor information used by the council and lastly by the conduct of some individuals including individuals in public office.
‘The Day of Dance committee have no real confidence in a truthful outcome of the Town Council meeting and are very disappointed by the behaviour of some Councillors and seemingly personal agendas to get the funding removed.
‘The support we have received in favour of the Day of Dance clearly demonstrates some councillors are not representative of their Sandbach constituents.
Sandbach Town Council and Cllr Wright have been contacted for comment.
