Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
The 47th Cambridge Folk Festival – one of the oldest and most famous events on the folk, country and world music scene – takes place on July 28–31 this year.
Since it was first held in 1965, the festival has always taken place in the grounds of Cherry Hinton Hall, just outside Cambridge, where scores of traditional folk artists from the UK and Ireland perform alongside more contemporary acts, American country, blues and roots artists, other musicians from all over the world and even the odd pop star.
The small-scale 1965 festival sold 1,400 tickets and almost broke even. (One of the acts was a little-known American folk singer called Paul Simon.) Now around 18,000 people attend the four-day festival each year, many of them camping on the site for the duration, and hundreds of thousands more listen to the live broadcasts on BBC Radio.
Most performers appear more than once over the weekend on the different stages: Stage 1 in a giant marquee in front of the main festival arena, Stage 2, a more intimate venue, and the Club Tent, hosted on the by five local folk clubs, where members of the audience including some well-known names spontaneously perform. The audience themselves create their own music in the bars and long into the evenings on the campsite.
British and Irish acts appearing this year include Richard Thompson, Pentangle, Rumer, Bellowhead, Kate Rusby, Laura Marling, Home Service, the Peatbog Faeries and Frankie Gavin with De Dannan. American guests include Mary Chapin Carpenter, blues guitarist Robert Cray, bluegrass banjo virtuoso Abigail Washburn and Raul Malo (of the Mavericks). Other international acts range from Nigerian superstar Femi Kuti and the Romanian gypsy band Mahala Rai Banda to the Spooky Men’s Chorale from Australia and Katzenjammer from Norway.
The festival’s other activities include juggling workshops, morris dancing, t’ai chi, street theatre and storytelling sessions. Children are catered for with a fully equipped playground and paddling pool, a crèche, a children’s concert, a kids’ ceilidh, children’s games and storytelling, plus music and dance workshops.
BBC Radio 2 have broadcast extensive coverage of the Festival for many years, and this year it will also be televised on Sky Arts.
The festival runs from 28 to 31 July, with tickets priced from £18 (Thursday) and £39 (Friday) to £50 (Saturday or Sunday) and £114 (children £33) for the full festival. Camping costs £50 for a tent or £70 for a caravan or camper van.
Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge
Tel: +44 1223 357851 (box office)
Website: www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk
Facebook: cambridgefolkfestival
Twitter: coopcamfolkfest
