Warwick Folk Festival 2024
Review
As you've probably noticed (and I fear when I overdo it, been bored by it), I do try & go beyond mechanistic reviews where possible & try & capture bigger picture perspectives.
I'm glad to say that great as the parts are, Warwick Folk Festival is another example of where the value of the whole still exceeds its constituent elements.
I find myself recently too often having to bemoan the seemingly inexorable rise of "lifestyle" events which while offering some of the musicians whom we feature useful opportunities to play. Nevertheless are really just commercial events "offering" music as a vaguely defined & homogenous commodity and consequently not being adequately focused on supporting the artists adequate facilities nor audiences consistent quality. Too often these seem to be forcing more music focused traditional events like the Leamington Peace Festival or Stratford's Riverside Festival out of the picture.
Warwick Folk Festival is therefore a breath of fresh air: like the Godiva Festival, it places music first & gains immeasurably.
It's hard to define atmosphere but this festival has such a sense of community & good will: you can sense the overall vibe & this must be so hard to inculcate but priceless to have.
People are there because they like music & are open minded enough to wander round & catch artists whom they've never previously seen playing unfamiliar songs (it's depressing how the lifestyle events go so much for the most turgid of covers acts). This pretty much sets the tone. That it draws so many volunteers is also a useful metric.
Though I had a "must see" list prepared beforehand (principally of artists whom we cover regularly), I too found myself wandering & experiencing the unfamiliar: it was very liberating. To the ones on the main Festival site, one can add the very many playing venues around Warwick in "Fringe" events: a feature of the event which is highly commendable & from which others might draw inspiration.
That one of the stages is called the "Living Tradition Centre" is significant & articulates underlying values I believe.
The artist-centred approach also had beneficial effects on another related bugbear: the pattern of skimping on sound engineering by the "other" local events mentioned above, which sell musicians so short.
I'd particularly like to cite Adam Beresford-Browne who provided the sound for the Jester Stage: I thoroughly enjoyed Pete Willow's CVFolk curated afternoon: partially because of the clarity of the sound. The Jester Stage is technically a marquee, but it's an open one & no-one could sit inside due to the Morris dancing floor. Under those conditions, sitting right at the back, in the sunshine, I'd not have expected terribly clear audio: but it was superb.
Finally, on this general run through, I'll suggest another measure of quality: not only was the character of the crowd similar to (say) the Peace Festival, it was great to see so many quirky & independent stalls there: the sort pretty much excluded from lesser events.
I'd better get onto specifics next: I'll concentrate on local artists given the remit of the magazine, but it was great to see the diversity of artists, not least between the amateur enthusiast & the mighty of profile, where one could see the likes of the Unthanks & the Oysterband on the same bill as our favourites from Coventry & Warwickshire.
Serendipity plays a little part in my personal pleasures: had there not been a foul-up on the Main Stage at Motofest, I'd certainly not have seen and enjoyed the Hoarse Whisperers. While I wanted to check out Pete's lineup & so probably would have caught them anyway, this time they were on my list. I'd never seen Yonderland either, despite Pete's recommendation, which now makes sense & I'd certainly see them again too (I gather that they play a lot!). Thanks too to Keith Donnelly whose Festival competition "I Can't Believe It's Not Folk!" brought winners Daisybell to my notice (they even managed to compose a song about winning in time for the presentation. Jack Rutter is not a local artists & so I don't foresee my writing much about his music, but he counts as another appreciated discovery.
Pete's own Willow & Tool Band make their debut in one of these articles. My (regrettable) tendency when offered a rich menu of options in different places is to sample briefly from many & thus skimp on full personal enjoyment. I didn't need encouraging to stay for their complete set on the Fringe at the Old Fourpenny Shop. Another band I'd like to see more of: and would love to hear recorded too…
The most popular of the CVFolk artists (judging by the enquiries Pete received as to her stage time & by how fast the seats filled up when she came on) was Kristy Gallacher. Part of that was rarity (this was one of her few gigs in recent years due to starting a family): she has been missed but is far from forgotten (which seemed to be her apprehension).
In stunning form, however busy two small daughters must make her, she's clearly been practising her playing which was as nimble & imaginative as ever. As Pete & I discussed afterwards, does Kristy ever receive her compete due as a guitarist? We fear not.
She's also, without a doubt, been writing & treated us to new material as original & literate as ever. This writer uses words which others do not. Consequently you get these beautiful sounding songs about profound matters.
On the Kingmaker Stage, Donnelly & South were on my schedule & despite having reported on performances by them several times already in 2024, even so I was treated to new experiences (thank you). Part of that was no doubt due to their talent & creativity, but more mundanely, I'd been reporting on what were essentially Lauren's gigs where Keith participated: this time we had the full duo format & so more of Keith's songs were played as well as numbers unique to this configuration.
I've certainly been enthusing about Lauren's music for ages now, but it was hugely gratifying to see just how popular they have become: I'm delighted because they are very talented & with their interesting combination of exquisite music & onstage humour, they have so much to offer audiences. Glad so many are coming round to my way of thinking!
I'd never seen them play for so many people before (though Lauren tells me that their current record was set at Bunkfest) and having previously (and in a very privileged way) seen them up close in more intimate settings, not only was I so pleased that so many people have been turned onto them, but it was fascinating to see how well their material worked in such a bigger context & so much further from their audience. Well you guessed it: extremely well.
It's great when several threads come together in an article (it makes it look like planning on the writer's part: it isn't) and the Ellie Gowers set on Sunday evening (a beautiful one for it) on the Kingmaker Stage was extra special. It is her first gig at the Festival as a Patron (congratulations), it comes a few days after the release of her magnificent new single "A Moment" and it unveiled the Ellie Gowers Trio to her home crowd.
Her album ‘Dwelling by the Weir' as you know takes its name from Warwick as it does its content & despite the growth & geographical spread of her profile, her love of her hometown is as fierce as her other passions & was articulated from the stage.
I apologised to her beforehand if while walking the tightrope between extoling her very considerable current excellence & development while not giving the impression that this implies anything other than admiration for her earlier work, I slipped. However (as noted in my review of "A Moment") she has made a mighty step in her career & the founding of the trio (with Joss Mann-Hazell on bass guitar & double bass and Scarlett Churchill on drums) reinforces this: suddenly one sees Ellie wielding an electric guitar & playing with a drummer which certainly catches the attention (though seeing her make her live debut on both shruti box & thunder tube back in April when acting as part of Lauren's band for her album launch gave a foretaste of seeing her play more than acoustic guitar in 2024).
Consequently, even material such as the title track & "Woman of the Waterways" were transformed from their recorded arrangements & converged more on her contemporary sound (though she did play "This Ground" solo as a one off hometown gesture and in salute to her brother's forthcoming nuptials)..
I mentioned in my recent review certain artists to whom she's been listening who might have influenced her evolution in style (Mipso, Gemma Hayes and Jeff Buckley) but listening to the Trio & their arrangements, I thought too of people like Joni Mitchell (and possibly Van Morrison) who moved in a jazz direction. Certainly, especially when the double bass was in action, the sound was as much jazz as folk, but to demonstrate their versatility, the version of "Love in a Park on a Sunday Afternoon" was positively funky.
Ellie has never been short of stage presence but there was an extra spring in her step this time. As with Donnelly & South, I've been a bit spoiled in seeing her play from much closer quarters & in smaller environments. Yet her charisma still works just as compellingly in front of a big crowd, on a high raised stage & with a sizeable distance separation.
She is now equipped with both sensational new material, the band to best reproduce it live & judging by the size & response of the audience, the view that the career advancement I predicted before COVID19 made all bets redundant, could well happen over the next few months. In that event, I'm sure the Festival community would be delighted & revel in her success.
Warwick Folk Festival embodies values which I feel fit in well with the magazine & our readership. However, bitter experience indicates that the world at large can be indifferent or hostile & that music centred festivals can be vulnerable: let's not be complacent & assume that it will go on forever regardless: it needs our support, not just via attendance but via the sort of support & promotion which thankfully social media makes easier than ever these days
