The North’s premier small folk festival was another triumph this year. Sold out well in advance, the three-day event hosted an eclectic range of musicians, dancers and poets, with plenty of opportunities for people attending the festival to join in at sessions and workshops - some of which were open to the public, like the family ceilidh on Saturday afternoon and the customary burning of the wolf in the town square. Music continued well into the night with dancing in the Village Hall with Panther Panther (https://www.pantherpantherav.com/music) and Turfu (https://www.youtube.com/@TURFUINSPACE) followed by pub sessions until long after my bedtime.
I did my best to see and talk to as many bands as I could but there is so much going on at this festival that it’s not possible to see it all. So my apologies for not including in the podcast the open mic session, Hadrian Clog, Crook Morris, Cash Cows, Kev Moore, Peter Tickell and Andrew Reed, the dance bands and the Brothers Gillespie. I was briefly visited by technology gremlins and a couple of very interesting interviews were lost to the ether; my apologies to the people whose conversation has gone awol.
One of the aspects of the festival that make it so special is that it involves the whole town. I would like to thank everyone involved for their cheerful help, especially the volunteers manning the desk and doors and the cooks serving delicious food in the Village Hall. And special thanks to Craig Atkinson for making it all possible.
I would have liked to include more of the music but rights issues limit what I can do. The musicians you’ll hear in the podcast are (in order of appearance):
Watersmeet
Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening
Fred Sheriff and Robin Moody
Wayward Jane
The Rheingans Sisters
Johnny Campbell
Mishra
Suntou Susso
Johnny Flynn and Howay The Lasses
The thumbnail image is of The Rheingans Sisters.
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