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It often appears to your editor that folk music in general and folk festivals in particular are a well kept secret from the majority of the population. It is quite possible, in the UK at least, to live within 10 km of a festival site and never know of its existence. As a visitor from the other side of the planet you stand no chance of finding local events, unless you do the research before you travel. Hopefully, some of the information found on this site will assist you to enjoy a great music scene that is just waiting to be discovered. |
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If you want to know the contact details or the dates for any UK festival, then either the Folk Roots site or freefolk.com are the best places to start, and the probably the most comprehensive net listings you will find. |
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The Somers Folklife from Worcestershire publish a handy booklet listing a range of festivals, called Folk Days and Festivals. Contact by email |
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Bromyard is a fairly traditional festival in outlook. There is a big dance contingent, a big Morris contingent and it must be one of the best festivals ever for sessions. The main site is just on the edge of the small town, in the gentle hills of Herefordshire. In 1997 there were three big marques, on the site, two of them fitted with dance floors, plus concessions and camping. There are a number of concert and singaround venues in the town. Morris dance displays take place at a couple of spots in the town, and traditionally there is a torchlight procession on the Friday evening. The late night unaccompanied singing session, usually led by Johnny Collins and Jim Mageean, is as good as you can take part in anywhere. The Saturday night in the Victorian music hall tradition, may not be to everyones taste, but its a great excuse for a lot of otherwise sober artists to let off steam, and do things that are outside the normal contempory folk repertoire and in conjunction with other artists. Oh, and the sessions. The first year I stumbled on Bromyard, I walked the length of the High Street, only a couple of hundred metres, and found sessions going in about nine pubs. There were different flavours of session, some with more singers, some just instrumental, the majority mixed, and musos occasionlly moving from one to the other until they found a mix of players that suited how they felt at that moment. Absolute magic. Bromyard web site |
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The Fairport Convention Reunion, although it has become just as much a reunion for the fans as it has for Fairport. A single venue event, large stage at the bottom of a gently sloping field, a crowd of between 12,000 and 18,000, horseshoe of concessions around the field, great selection of food, good beer, extensive camping areas. Recently the music has been for about 12 hours on Friday and 12 hours on Saturday with some major names from the folk scene, with the Saturday evening being Fairport and guests. The 2000 festival introduces a Thursday evening concert as well, at the time when normally the reunion is in full swing, with lots of people meeting up with old friends and filling the village pubs well past the bursting point. You will not find a more good tempered crowd anywhere, all ages, all having a good time. Loads of information available on this festival, see the Faiport Convention site. . Fairport . Pictures |
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Smallish festival, one large marquee, a couple of smaller club type venues, and a dance venue. Not held in Chester itself, but in the small town of Kelsall close by. Lovely atmosphere with the camping and the major venues on a compact field behind the pub. Major building improvements to the Morris Dancer, the pub adjacent to the site, had a detrimental effect on the 98 festival, but the loss was more that compensated for by the very welcoming landlord at the Royal Oak, just down the road. Lots happening, something for everybody. The only thing missing in 98 was the annual acoustic blues workshop. To be fair, I only get to see snatches of performance sets if I spend all the time playing in sessions, but you usually get a good line up at Chester. Some excellent led sessions, but in 97 it was more difficult to find venues for ad-hoc sessions. In 98 there were some great sessions at the Royal Oak. We were only able to make a brief visit in 99, but Bernard Carney seemed to be going down very well with the UK audience. |
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Held in Fleetwood on the Fylde coast of Lancashire. Several large indoor concert venues. Comparable in size and scope with the Australian National in Camberra, or maybe a little smaller. A major performance festival. Loads of top flight acts, but in the editors experience, not much in the way of sessions, although there are planned singarounds. |
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The concert area is an open paved area between some of the buildings, with a canvas roof over. Single stage with a max audience capacity of about 200. There is also a very pleasent room for workshops. The mill building itself would be ideal for sessions, but somehow during the 2000 festival, they just didn't seem to happen. Perhaps the organizers need to seed them in some way.
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Holmfirth is a stone built town, on the steep sides of a valley in West Yorshire, with the bridge across the river right in the centre. One large performance venue and a club size venue, and plenty of pubs for singarounds, sessions and dancing in the pub yard. If you have seen "Last of the Summer Wine", you know what it looks like, most of the locations for the programme are within Holmfirth. Its all very compact, the Morris dancing takes place more or less in the centre of town, several pubs involved with sessions and singarounds. One of the traditions of the area is brass bands of course, so you may find the line up in the session in the pub yard includes a range of instruments you might not normally expect. |
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Yes, that is Lomond as in Loch Lomond, Scotland, by yon bonny banks. The first festival will occur on 11 to 13th August 2000, so we can not tell you the usual information. However it is run by the people involved with the weekly club at the Argyle in Alexandria, which is just 2 or 3 km South of the Loch, and where your editor has spent many happy evenings. They have a line up that includes 'Old Blind Dogs' and 'The MacCalman's', and even a folk cruise on Loch Lomond. Contact, Stewart Davidson, 45 Inchfad Road, Balloch, Dumbartonshire, G83 8SY Tel. 01389 757 561 |
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Middlewich is unusual in that it is on a significant junction in the canal system, and the festival is a combined folk and narrowboat festival. Mixture of mostly local talent and some quite big national names. There is one large main marquee venue and two club / acoustic / workshop venues on the main site. In addition several of the pubs in the town put on related fringe performance events, and there are some planned sessions and workshops in some of the pubs. For the 1998 festival, one of the pubs was dominated most of the weekend by the salt town poets (the wich in Middlewich, Nantwich and similar local town names is a reference to salt, a huge deposit of which exists under the Cheshire plain). Several of the pubs involved are situated on or near the canal banks |
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Saddleworth Rushcart celebrates the ancient practice of renewing the rush flooring in the public buildings (ie the Pubs and the Churches), by pulling a cart laden with rushes around the area and stopping at appropriate pubs. The cart is pulled by 80 to a 100 morris men, with another 40 to 50 acting as the brakes. Every pub they stop at there is dancing and a fair amount of ale is consumed. Great ham baps when they stop at Delph. Not a performace folk festival as such in the accepted sense, but a very colourful, great folk occassion. Rushcart Pictures |
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One very large (about 1200 seat) marquee for concerts, one of equal size for dancing. An outside arena stage for displays. Another marquee and the village hall for smaller events. Huge tent for the main bar, and a similar one for music concessions, a good selection of food stalls. Only one pub for sessions, but it does have a barn which is as excellent venue for the unaccompaned singing session, that seems to go full on for the whole festival. See the feature on the 99 event |
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One of the smaller festivals, mostly based on the pubs in the compact town centre. Two large club size concert venues attached to pubs, a hall for dances, several pubs with opportunites for sessions. All held on the banks of the Severn in Worcestershire, camping on a local sports field adjacent to the town centre. There have been some really good sessions here, there is usually at least one going on in a pub for the whole time they are open. One of the festivals where led sessions are organized, which helps maintain the continuity, and often provides opportunites for new starters. Quite a few Morris sides, giving dance demonstrations. Upton on Severn Folk Festival |
Held in
a heritage centre at Parkmill on the Gower penisular, just
West of Swansea, (old) South Wales. The site was once a
working corn mill and the water wheel, mill race and corn
grinding machinery are still in place and operating. The
site has several on site craft shops and craft demonstration
facilites, within the buildings. There is a play area for
the kids with a super sandpit, a pond with some huge trout
in it, and permanent tea room facilities. So most of the the
normal facilites you get at a festival in tents and mobile
food stalls are already on site. 
The artists booked for 2000
were a mixture of some top line national artists and a few
excellent local groups. The camping was literally just over
the road from the building, and to top it off, a short
morning stroll will get you to a great beach. 
The well established Redditch festival moved to
Alcester in 2000, and gained a longer title. There were a
few minor problems with being at a new location, but the
organizers soon had them sorted out, and it was a very
succesful weekend. There were several local pubs which were
keen to welcome session players, in the compact and
picturesque town centre, and the concert venues were
excellent. A wide variety of activities in some interesting
locations and formats. The pictures illustrate part of the
short walk from the campsite just out of the town, on the
way to the main venue.
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Held over the new year, with the major event being a dance held in the street on New Year's Eve, usually with one of the top Bush Bands. Lots of dancing, in spite of a normal daytime temperature in the mid to high 30s (C). Concerts tend to be small and with fairly local talent. To a large extend the festival is a do it yourself affair, with some good sessions. The chorus cup is an Australian instituition with much audience participation, where ad-hoc groups compete to win a trivial prize, and brag of bribing the judges by plying them with drink and other favours. |
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The 2000 festival is 4-5 November. Closer to Camberra than Sydney, this charming festival takes over the small town of Major's Creek, a former gold mining town near Braidwood. The last visit we made the venues consisted of a small stone built church for the quieter moments, a wooden pavillion for dancing and some other events, an outdoor stage and a marquee. The festival also has the air of a small country fair, with a few stalls and things like sheep shearing demonstrations. My recollection is dominated by being co-opted into a band called Sow's Ear, and playing for the evening bush dance. Official site |
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Held over the Easter weekend in Camberra. Self contained site in the exhibition centre attached to the racecourse. Loads of buildings to provide several major stages and a couple of large dance floors, and the odd marquee. Loads of concerts with a huge range of guests, from all states and internationally. Concerts range from huge auditoriums to small intimate concert rooms. Loads of singing sessions and workshops. Big open air dance demonstration area set up in a piazza with the concession stalls around it. Dance demonstrations from all ethnic backgrounds all day every day. The session bar is huge and runs nearly all night, every night. |
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The Illawara festival at Jamberoo is held in late March, in a delightful spot about 20 minutes drive inland from Kiama, about two hours drive South of Sydney. It is very much like the Bromyard festival in England, both in its location and in its size and mix of music. Wongawilli are well represented in the organization and the guest list usually includes some major Aussie names and a few international ones. Good web site with helpful information. |
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The Newcastle and Hunter valley festival. Held in Wollemi, using the community centre, two small stone built churches, the odd barn and a small marquee, with the veranda of the pub being used for sessions. Small festival with a nice atmosphere, in a small country town on the edge of the Hunter valley. Picture 1 Picture 2 |