Festival Chatter

[garrypbrooks]

Some VG acts on at Broadstairs  Folk Fest August  8-15 including Angeline Morrison,;Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, John Palmer & Jon Bickley; Jon Boden; Eddie Reader; Reg Meuross & Marion Fleetwood ; Granny’s Attic ; and the Magpies
And Broadstairs is well worth a visit anyway

[davidmjs]

Not sure if this is already reported elsewhere, but I read that RT is headlining Wickham on Sat 2 Aug.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Not sure if this is already reported elsewhere, but I read that RT is headlining Wickham on Sat 2 Aug.

He is indeed.
I wonder if he has any plans for the following week.

[DawnG]

He's at Sidmouth Folk Festival on 3rd August

[issy]

I went to Upton on Severn folk festival for the first time this year and had a rather lovely time.  The camp site is very spacious, you park by your tent and the showers and toilets were good..  the site is just over the bridge from Upton.  Upton is a gorgeous place on the river with lots of independent shops.  The charity shop was the best I have ever been in and I made some purchases including two novels by Ian McEwan to read over the weekend and a sensational hat!  The forecast was good so I thought I'd chance taking my old tent which is the perfect size even though it is definitely not waterproof anymore.  The last time I had used it was a rather wet Green Gathering in 2023 and I realised the error of my ways as soon as I started pitching it.  It was seriously mouldy inside and out.  Still, needs must.

I like a bit of Morris and there was lots of it at Upton and it was fun to meet some people I used to dance with. I also did some social dancing and join-in morris which was very pleasing given my physical limitations.   I was stewarding which was the usual chaos but not overly demanding, only 9 hours over the whole festival (4 days).   I liked that the bands and singarounds were in pubs and churches and I was happy to get my steps in going between them and the campsite, although there was a donation-based minibus as well.  The baptist church deserves a big shout out for being so hospitable and running a donation based lunch and cake service.  Regarding bands I was especially pleased to see Sherburn, Bartley and Saunders, who were actually the deciding factor in me going to this festival, and caught them twice!  Patakas were also very good, their set list was well chosen and well executed and I saw them twice too!  It was good to see Tim Van Eyken after what seems like quite a long absence - he has spent some years doing theatre, including Warhorse and making furniture and its always a pleasure to see James Fagan and Nancy Kerr.  I managed to catch a bit of the ceilidh with the excellent Banter before heading back to my bed with a cupasoup, a habit I started at Cropredy!

Following that I went to the one-day Whitchurch folk festival (Hants) which was blessed with lovely weather and I hope a good turn out as a result.  Whitchurch is another lovely place and the festival seemed well organised with all the elements you'd expect to have catering for all age groups in a typical village folk festival.  I got there for the singing workshop with Anna Tabbush which was unsurprisingly excellent before going to the pub to support young artists doing their thing.  I thought the Mummers play was excellent, very amusing and topical.  I saw performances by Tamsin Elliot and Tarek Elazahary (beautiful music), Patakas (much appreciated by the home crowd) and Martin Simpson, who I never tire off.  The parish church is definitely worth a look around too.  Leveret were outstanding as ever and  I finished the evening with some dancing at the ceilidh before leaving to get the train home.  Super day out!

Next folk festival in the calendar is Gower, the most bijou and perfectly formed festival of the year in the most outstanding location.  13th - 15th June on the North Gower coast overlooking the estuary and right next to Weobley castle.  Well known for its European dance class, the superb quality of its artists and the most wonderful sunday morning dog show!  This years line up is marvellous, includes Rachel McShane and Miranda Skyes, Metheglin and Kantref, Patakas, Leveret and the wonderful Vri!  It will sell out as it did last year.

[David W]

Northern Kin cancelled - some rather p'd off artists posting on FB

DW

[davidmjs]

Northern Kin cancelled - some rather p'd off artists posting on FB

DW

Don't blame them...it's been clear it wasn't going to happen for weeks, and the artists hear by reading the social media.  Poor.

[Andy]

All Wannasee and Stone Valley Festivals have been cancelled too.

Wannasee South, Jukebox Sunderland and Jukebox Bingley, Sign of the Times, Stone Valley South and Stone Valley Midlands.

There's a couple of explanations offered - lack of confidence in the market and a major investor withdrawing.

Whatever, the artists booked for those have been treated very badly.

[John747]

Don't think Lindisfarne Festival has been cancelled yet

[Will S]

In the midst of the bad news about festivals, Fisherman's Friends have announced their own festival - over the late May Bank Holiday weekend next year.  Line-up includes Jools Holland, Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman, Sharon Shannon, The Longest Johns, Skipinnish and Peat & Diesel, amongst others.

Tickets £115 (inc. camping) or £50 for day tickets.

[davidmjs]

In the midst of the bad news about festivals, Fisherman's Friends have announced their own festival - over the late May Bank Holiday weekend next year.  Line-up includes Jools Holland, Kate Rusby, Seth Lakeman, Sharon Shannon, The Longest Johns, Skipinnish and Peat & Diesel, amongst others.

Tickets £115 (inc. camping) or £50 for day tickets.

https://thefishermansfriends.com/festival

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Wish it was in Notts and not as far away as Cornwall!

[PaulT]

Wish it was in Notts and not as far away as Cornwall!

If only there was a group local to you called, say, "Ploughman's Pals"...

[Amethyst (Jenny)]

Wish it was in Notts and not as far away as Cornwall!

If only there was a group local to you called, say, "Ploughman's Pals"...

😁😁😁

[Andy]

Wendy and I Stewarded at Beardy Folk this weekend and saw a number of really good artists.

I'd especially call out call out Demi Marriner, 3 Daft Monkeys, the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, Joshua Burnell, Ranagri, The Cain Pit and The Cinelli Brothers. Because of our working, we missed several other acts, so I intend no disrespect to them, can't praise what we didn't see.

"An Audience with Steve Tilston" was obviously a new format for him and it spaced out his songs with some fairly innocuous chat. IMHO, more songs, less questions with very obvious answers, please. Liked the man and his songs, but the format didn't work for me. I see Oysterband are advertising a similar format for Shrewsbury FF. I hope it works better there.

[davidmjs]

Wendy and I Stewarded at Beardy Folk this weekend and saw a number of really good artists.

I'd especially call out call out Demi Marriner, 3 Daft Monkeys, the Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, Joshua Burnell, Ranagri, The Cain Pit and The Cinelli Brothers. Because of our working, we missed several other acts, so I intend no disrespect to them, can't praise what we didn't see.

"An Audience with Steve Tilston" was obviously a new format for him and it spaced out his songs with some fairly innocuous chat. IMHO, more songs, less questions with very obvious answers, please. Liked the man and his songs, but the format didn't work for me. I see Oysterband are advertising a similar format for Shrewsbury FF. I hope it works better there.

A fairly (obviously, I'd have thought) bad idea for a festival set - can't understand why anyone would do that?  Save that for your own audience in your own venues...when it can work really well.  A festival audience wants a no messing all the hits and more type experience.  It's not rocket science is it?

[Andy]

I should have mentioned that Steve's gig was in the acoustic tent rather than on the main stage. He still had 300+ packed into the venue.