Before 1989 Feet First, the leading Appalachian dance team in Britain, organised and ran Appalachian dance workshops. Many were the times that demand for places at these workshops outstripped supply. With such an interest in Appalachian dancing and associated music the Feet First committee made the momentous decision to organise a comprehensive festival of dance and music.
The original plan was to hold it in Chesterfield, a town that was central to most of Feet First. Lack of a suitable location in Chesterfield caused the committee to look further afield. On the outskirts of Matlock, a town 16 kilometres (10 miles) south east of Chesterfield, a suitable site was found. It was Highfields Upper School. With its halls for concerts and dance workshops, and smaller room for intimate musical workshops it looked good. With the bonus of an ample amount of on-site non muddy parking it proved to be ideal.
The first festival was in 1989. In those days it was called the Feet First Festival. Feet First played an important role in the festival by running many of the workshops and giving dance displays. From the very beginning the festival has invited other top Appalachian dance teams to complement the Feet First style.
With the increasing pressure of a full dancing display diary, it was becoming difficult to spend the necessary time as a dance team and a festival organiser. There was talk of the 1994 Feet First Festival being the last. Dave Wheeler and Alan James thought that it was worth continuing. And so, the festival came under new management and the new name of the Footloose Festival was born. Continuity was maintained from the early years as Dave had played a crucial part in organising most of the previous festivals and Alan had been involved in the very early years.
1997 saw a branching out of the festival into other local events with a session in the Miners Standard at Winster with Craobh Rua. These were very popular locally and even more events were arranged for the runup to the 1998 Festival.
For the 1998 festival, Dave Wheeler passed overall control of the festival to his wife Dot while still continuing to make a major contribution as the Festival Artistic Director. It was the most successful festival and broke new ground by being responsible for bringing over the resident band, The Konnarock Critters, from the USA.
Due to difficulties with the venue, the 1999 festival had to be cancelled.
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