COMPETITION was as hot as the weather at the Dartmoor Folk Festival last weekend.

It was second time lucky for Alice Knight, 19, from Hampshire, who became the 2022 Dartmoor Step Dance Champion at the 45th Dartmoor Folk Festival held at South Zeal.

Alice previously won the title in 2019 and in 2017 was the Junior Step Dance Champion.

The Dartmoor Step Dance competition is one of the main traditions associated with the festival.

Dancers step on a 15 inch board, showing their different steps to try and outstep the previous dancer until a final champion is decided upon.

This year’s Junior Step Dance Champion was Stanley Frangleton (14), from South Zeal.

He previously won the title in 2020, when the competition was held virtually.

In the Dartmoor Broom Dancing Championships it was Bethany Gentle (11), from South Zeal, who took the 2022 Championship title.

This competition sees competitors dance with and over a broom and is for primary school aged children.

There were many competitors in all of the competitions.

The festival included song and music sessions, concerts, ceilidhs, church service, a Grand Dart-i-moor Fayre, Folk for All afternoon, children’s entertainment, a duck race, skittles, crafts, dance displays, pub sessions and a ramble on Dartmoor.

Top local and national folk artists took part.

Festival chairman, Jason Rice, said it was ‘great that the festival was able to go ahead’.

‘It was a fantastic weekend and we cannot thank enough those who helped make it such a success,’ he said.