Blacking up ban as folk dancers catch up with 21st century

Organizers of one of Britain's biggest folk festivals announced on Thursday that this year's event will be the last to feature an age-old tradition of dancers blacking their faces.

The four-day Shrewsbury Folk Festival, which starts on Friday in Shrewsbury, in the English county bordering neighboring Wales, will for the last time allow dancers to wear full-face black makeup.

It followed the threat of legal action from a Shrewsbury-based equality group who complained about the practice of white dancers blacking their faces.