A LOOK AHEAD TO THIS YEARS WARWICK FOLK FESTIVAL 26th - 29th July
Photo gallery
The beautiful town of Warwick always comes to life for its annual Folk Festival which as well as at the main Warwick School site spreads its wings into Warwick town centre with events in the Market Place and Smith St and various venues putting on fringe performances.
I always try and get along for a couple of visits during the festivals run and although my folk music knowledge is not as good as that of some musical genres I always find fantastic music to enjoy in the impressive main stage marquee with its headline attractions, the amazing pop-up pub on the main site with its spontaneous performances, the other smaller venues at Warwick School and around the town itself.
This years Saturday headliners ‘Show Of Hands' are recognised as one of the best folk bands in the country and I well remember seeing their fabulous, full of life set at a previous festival.
Another artists I will be looking out for is Somerset based singer/songwriter ‘Kitty Macfarlane' who's set I caught at the 2015 festival (if my memory serves me right), she has a beautiful voice, equally impressive on the guitar and her lyrics are always so clever and true to life, if you are going strongly recommend you catch her in action.
Always a must see at the festival (and thankfully a regular) is the wonderful ‘Keith Donnelly', he often compares (along with of course a couple of songs and shall we say tall tales!) the main stage as well as performing at other sites over the weekend and his mix of humour and music is top draw, at times you cry with laughter at his stories and jokes at others he can amaze you with his musical skill and songwriting.
Folk music covers a broad spectrum of course and also performing this year mixing hip hop/funk with traditional folk instruments such as the fiddle and accordion are ‘notorious J.I.G' and if sea shanties are your bag ‘The Exmouth Shanty Men' are always great fun and also playing this year the cleverly named all female shanty band ‘She Shanties'.
For the more traditional folk fans there is (as always) an abundance of fine artists on display this year including two top duos ‘Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith' and husband and wife band ‘Megson' who have numerous BBC Radio 2 Folk Award Nominations.
The musical talent comes from far and wide with Australian, French and many other takes on the genre including music from all corners of the British Isles.
The music is of course a major part of the event but so much more going on as well with dances, workshops and crafts as well as plenty to keep the kids occupied.
Always a friendly vibe with so much going on and of course an abundance of great music and for full details check the
festival's web site below
https://www.warwickfolkfestival.co.uk
The photos are a few of my unpublished shots covering a few of my visits to this wonderful local event over the years.
Andrew Lock
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