If it was anybody big ( Plant , even RT etc) they would have announced it to enhance ticket sales . No it will probably be some extended member of the Fairport family……Ashley Hutchings ? Etc

I think the Brase is almost doing that. I’m not sure what will happen with parking if people just drive to the Brase for a day but a lineup that has a Jon Palmer Acoustic Band and Steve Knightlys new band on it , appeals…..You can get in with a Cropredy wristband but ticket holders will take precedence……

I am wary of posting here as I haven’t been a Cropredy regular since2016 but there were almost 30 Cropredies before that.
I could reiterate views here , aging demographic ,a lineup that doesn’t appeal to a wider demographic etc
BUT…..
there is a wider argument.
The way people consume music and I use the word deliberately, is changing.
I look at the numbers going to Costa Fests, that older demographic watching the same bands in the warmth of hotel in a Ibiza etc ,( yes I know it rained this year) …or watching Show of  Hands and Richard Thompson on a river cruise!
Venues are closing , people aren’t risking money on unknown acts . I play at and attend a lot of venues and I feel music is going underground again , music fans creating small venues and finding a niche….Temperance Bar in Leamington Spa is a great example.
Festivals are becoming more boutique …….(!)
This year I will again attend Warwick Folk Fest , lovely setting , gigs in marquees , a line up that appeals.
Sadly it’s same weekend as Cambridge . Cambridge is interesting in that last yr they tried to appeal to a younger audience, hip hop on the main stage, ditching some of the folk tents but this yr they are back to being a Folk Fest.
I am also going to Between  the Trees , nr Bridgend, 1000 people, probably all considerably younger than me, a couple of acts I know and an awful,lot I don’t, cos that’s what appeals to me these days.
Sorry, I don’t want to see Digance , Tony Christie, Wakeman, Buggles, Focus, Feast of Fiddles  again,or Fairports  doing their concert set. Seen that. Ranagri are playing so they may support Christie. I saw them at NFFF a few yrs ago. They were good , he was awful……imho…..but if you do want to sing Amarillo in a field…..people may even stand up…..😇😳🤣🤦‍♀️
Fairports and Cropredy have been a hugely important part of my life. Friends and music I love.
I stood on the field with my best male mate , sometime in the early 2000’s, watching Fairports . ‘ They’re playing well ‘, I said. ‘ Yes’, he said. Simple as that. We had gone to see Fairports. As we had for far too many years. We sprinkled his ( Gareth’s)/ashes on the field in 2012 during MOTL
When Gareth died, his widow gave me his Cropredy Farewell Concert Poster from outside the Brase in 1979. It hangs in our ‘snug’ next to a Fairport Poster with Swarb on it..Tempis Fugit …but that memory……and a thousand others …..will do.
Onwards to whatever music may be around the next corner…..

What, you mean like Cropredy was?  

I suspect a new venue though would probably assist in drawing a line and starting anew and reframing what this new event was (rather than seeing it as a 'lesser' Cropredy)

I suspect it's a slightly milder version of the former - someone that the majority would simply shrug their shoulders at.

I do wonder if it’s time for Cropredy to come to an end, and the band does a much smaller summer event focusing on them and associated friends/acts, similar to what Show of Hands do at Abbotsbury…

The matter of the 'Special Guest' is curious.

Have they not disclosed him for fear of putting people off?

Does the ability to pay his fee depend on an incremental increase in sales?

….and thats the point isn’t it Bill , money is tight, people , including me, are choosing their fests based on lineup…..not nostalgia for an event long changed…..

The fact that both headliners have appeared before doesnt help and people who go every so often may choose this one to miss. Although very often I find the headliners the least appealing. I thought last years line up was excellent apart from the Thursday headliner.

I have to agree with most of the comments here, and this years line up is not the bets I have ever seen.
Add in an ageing fan base (We don't camp any more because of Kims arthritis) and you have the makings of a perfect storm.

Other than trying to attract a younger punter by putting on current bands (expensive) I'm not sure what the answer is.