It’s taken me a little while to sit down and reflect on what an extraordinary six days we had at Poacher International Jamboree 2026.

Held at Lincolnshire Showground, Poacher is enormous. Around 11,000 Scouts, Guides, leaders, volunteers and staff came together this year, with different activity zones spread across the site.

We were just one little pocket of it, providing six African drumming and dance workshops every day for six days – 36 sessions altogether.

This was our third Poacher, following 2017 and 2022, and I think this might just have been our best yet. We had a fantastic location, glorious hot and dry weather and pretty much full houses throughout the week.

I was joined for all six days by my colleague Dimitri, who was absolutely superb accompanying the sessions on dunduns.

And then there was the red carpet…

The magic carpet becomes THE red carpet

I have an old red carpet that I often take to festivals. I call it our “magic carpet”, and usually it simply helps make a temporary workshop space feel a little cosier.

But at Poacher we were treated to the luxury of a fully carpeted marquee, so the magic carpet wasn’t really needed.

I decided to roll it out down the middle of our drum circle instead.

And then I realised.

This wasn’t just a red carpet. It was THE red carpet.

I demonstrated the full catwalk: strut purposefully down the carpet, reach the end, turn around and give everybody that deadly serious fashion-model glance back.

Then Dimitri got his Bluetooth speaker out and put on Madonna’s Vogue.

That was it.

Between sections of African drumming, the Scouts and Guides started taking to the catwalk. Friendship groups went up together, girls embraced it, boys embraced it, and some of the performances became wonderfully theatrical.

I hadn’t known how readily teenagers would embrace the dance and movement elements of the workshops. You can invite people to participate, but you can’t force that sort of thing – they have to feel comfortable enough to go for it.

And they really did.

We even had several friendship groups who enjoyed the sessions so much that they came back on subsequent days to do it all over again.

36 workshops – and lots of new ideas

One of the most rewarding things about Poacher was how much the workshops themselves developed over the six days.

We worked with 4/4 and 12/8 West African rhythms, exploring ideas inspired by musical traditions from Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Ghana.

Some of what we were doing became surprisingly sophisticated. I would try something with one group, realise that it worked, develop it a little further with the next group, and gradually a new workshop idea would emerge.

That’s one of the unusual opportunities you get when delivering 36 sessions over six consecutive days. Rather than simply repeating the same workshop, you’re constantly responding to the people in front of you and finding new ways of teaching and putting rhythms together.

By the end of Poacher, I had developed several new ideas and workshop templates that I’ll now be able to take into other African drumming workshops.

Would my hands survive six days?

Before Poacher started, I genuinely wondered how my hands were going to cope with leading six drumming workshops a day for six days.

Thirty-six sessions is a lot of djembe playing!

But something interesting happened as the week progressed. I became increasingly conscious of using dynamics and technique – playing lightly when that was all that was needed and bringing in the power at the moments when it really mattered.

Rather than the week becoming more difficult, we seemed to settle into a groove.

We camped on site, got into our daily routine and became completely absorbed in the strange little world of an enormous international jamboree.

And suddenly it was Friday.

I honestly couldn’t believe how quickly those six days had gone.

African drumming workshops for Scouts and Guides

We’ve worked with Scouts, Cubs, Beavers, Guides, Brownies and Rainbows for many years, from individual packs and units through to camps, activity days and major events such as Poacher.

African drumming works particularly well in this environment because everyone gets to participate. No previous musical experience is necessary, and within a relatively short space of time a group can be creating something together that sounds genuinely exciting.

The workshops can incorporate djembe and dundun playing, traditional West African rhythms, movement and dance, with the level of challenge adapted for different ages and groups.

Poacher demonstrated just how far we can take that. Across those 36 sessions we had hundreds of young people drumming, dancing, laughing, challenging themselves – and occasionally strutting down a slightly battered red carpet to Madonna.

Thank you, Poacher!

Having first delivered workshops at Poacher in 2017, returning in 2022 and then being invited back again for 2026 means a great deal to us.

A huge thank you to the Poacher team and the extraordinary number of volunteers who make an event on this scale possible.

And, of course, thank you to all the Scouts and Guides who joined Dimitri and me throughout the six days. Your enthusiasm absolutely made the week.

Poacher 2026 was an absolute joy. We hope we’ll be back.

With thanks to Poacher International Jamboree for providing the photographs accompanying this article, which are used with permission.

African drumming for your Scout or Guide group

Unbeatable Energy provides interactive African drumming workshops for Scouts, Cubs, Beavers, Guides, Brownies and Rainbows, as well as Scout and Guide camps, jamborees, activity days and larger events.

If you’re planning an event and would like to find out how African drumming could work for your group, get in touch with Unbeatable Energy to discuss your plans.

We’d be delighted to discuss your event and explore how African drumming could work for your team.