It takes place over four days on and around the UK Late Summer bank holiday weekend (usually the last weekend in August). The first Shrewsbury festival was held in 2006, but it was a direct successor to the Bridgnorth Folk Festival, which was first held in 1997. The 2006 Shrewsbury event was staged at The Quarry, but in 2007 a move was made to the larger West Midlands Showground, where all subsequent festivals have been held.
The festival was headed by festival directors Alan Surtees and Sandra Surtees who both started the Bridgnorth Folk Festival in 1997 up until Alan's untimely death in 2017, since then Sandra has continued to organise both the festival and events that come under the 'Shrewsbury Folk Festival' banner.
The festival's patrons are John Jones of Oysterband and Steve Knightley of Show of Hands (since 2011).[1] Both Oysterband and Show of Hands have performed at the festival on more than one occasion.
2012: Richard Thompson, Kate Rusby, Show of Hands, Dervish and Blowzabella.[7]KT Tunstall, although booked, was unable to appear. Instead Stage 2 headliners The Treacherous Orchestra were promoted to headline the main stage on the final day and the festival was concluded by a "Folk Slam" organised at short notice by Jim Moray and featuring various artists and surprise guests, including Maddy Prior. The experiment was repeated at the 2013 festival and featured reprise performances by artists who had already played at the event.
2014: Seth Lakeman, Dhol Foundation, Bellowhead, The Full English, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings and Steve Knightley`s Wake The Union, a special performance playing Show Of Hands` Wake The Union album featuring Lenny Podolak, Matt Gordan, Rex Preston & Miranda Sykes and Phillip Henry & Hannah Martin.[9]
2015: The 2015 festival included Kate Rusby, Oysterband, La Bottine Souriante and Sharon Shannon among others.[10]
2016: The 2016 festival included Tom Robinson Band, The Levellers, Show of Hands, Raghu Dixit, Dervish and Guests among many other musicians and bands.[9]
2017: The festival in 2017 featured appearances from Eric Bibb, Loudon Wainwright III, Oysterband, The Unthanks, Seth Lakeman, Jon Boden, La Machine and Faith Folk and Anarchy (Martyn Joseph, Steve Knightley and Tom Robinson) amongst many more acts.[9]
2020: The festival was postponed until 2021 due to the Covid pandemic and the effect of flooding from the river Severn on the festival's site in February of that year.[11]
The Launchpad showcases up and coming talent on the Village Stage. It is an opportunity for bands, duos or singer songwriters to pitch for one of the three places available each year.
In March 2011, the festival, in conjunction with the English Folk Dance & Song Society (EFDSS) teamed up to organise the Cecil Sharp Project, a multi-artist commission to create new material based on the life and collections of the founding father of the English Folk Revival Cecil Sharp.
On 18 March 2011 eight artists gathered together in Acton Scott, Shropshire, to write and rehearse the material. The new work was premiered at Theatre Severn, Shrewsbury, on 24 March 2011, after which the artists went to London for two further concerts at Cecil Sharp House on 26 and 27 March 2011. The concerts were professionally recorded and mixed for CD release in September 2011. The artists involved in the project were Steve Knightley, Andy Cutting, Leonard Podolak, Jim Moray, Jackie Oates, Caroline Herring, Kathryn Roberts and Patsy Reid.
Darwin Song Project
In March 2009, to celebrate the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin (who was born in Shrewsbury), the festival commissioned the Darwin Song Project, a multi-artist residential project for one week, with the brief to create new works with a 'relevance and resonance' to the life and work of Darwin.
A professional CD and DVD, recorded at a special performance at Theatre Severn in Shrewsbury and produced by Hanna, was released in August 2009. The Project was also featured in performance by all eight original artists at that year's Shrewsbury Folk Festival.
Dance
Traditional dance is an important element of the festival and numerous Morris dance sides and other traditional dance teams perform on the Village stage, around the festival site and in the Dance Tent, where audience participation is encouraged and accompaniment of traditional dance tunes is provided by artists such as the Oyster Ceilidh Band (an acoustic version of Oysterband). Traditional dance is also taken into the town centre during the festival weekend, with sides performing in the square in front of the Old Market Hall and the Castle grounds, with a procession through the streets between the two on the Saturday afternoon.
Work in Schools
The Festival also runs a regular schools project, which usually takes place in June each year, that sees established traditional folk groups working in Shropshire primary schools for a week.
In the last few years this project has seen the musicians working with all year groups in the schools, but also working intensively with 30 children that culminates in a performance at the Theatre Severn where the whole school community is invited to a free show with the 30 children performing on stage with the band.
The 30 children and their families are then invited to the festival in August, where the show is performed on the second stage.
Since 2007 the number of musicians involved in the schools' project is 422.
Related Research Articles
Kate Anna Rusby is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the best known contemporary English folk singers. In 2001 The Guardian described her as "a superstar of the British acoustic scene." In 2007 the BBC website described her as "The first lady of young folkies". She is one of the few folk singers to have been nominated for the Mercury Prize.
Towersey Festival is an annual festival of folk, world music and traditional dance, previously held in the village of Towersey, relocated to neighbouring Thame in Oxfordshire, England through 2019. It moved to the Claydon Estate Middle Claydon in Buckinghamshire from 2020. It has taken place every August bank holiday weekend since its founding in 1965.
The BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards celebrate outstanding achievement during the previous year within the field of folk music, with the aim of raising the profile of folk and acoustic music. The awards have been given annually since 2000 by British radio station BBC Radio 2.
Fairport's Cropredy Convention is an annual festival of folk and rock music, headed by British folk-rock band Fairport Convention and held on the edge of the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire, England. The festival has taken place in August annually since 1976.
Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer. Joined by singer and double-bassist Miranda Sykes for a tour in 2004, Show of Hands continued to regularly perform as a trio with Sykes, as well as in their original format. In 2019 the line-up was further expanded by the addition of Irish percussionist Cormac Byrne.
Steve Knightley is an English singer, songwriter and acoustic musician. Since 1992 he has been one half of folk/roots duo Show of Hands along with Phil Beer. Knightley was named "Songwriter of the Nineties" by BBC Radio 6 Music in 2012.
Jim Moray is an English folk singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer.
BunkFest, a small but growing end-of–summer folk music festival, takes place in Wallingford, Oxfordshire, UK and combines a broad range of folk music, dance displays, a beer festival and the local (Bunk) steam railway. BunkFest is a not-for-profit festival and is run entirely by volunteers. BunkFest was started in 2002 by a small group of local folk music enthusiasts.
The Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival takes place in June in Middlewich, Cheshire, England. The festival builds on the town's industrial heritage in which canal boats were used to move coal and other raw materials in the town for the production of salt, and then move the salt out of town, either for use directly, or as a raw material in the manufacture of chemicals such as chlorine and soda ash.
Kathryn Roberts is an English folk singer, from Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
Witness is the twelfth studio album by British folk duo Show of Hands. The album was recorded in January 2006 at Presshouse Studio, Colyton, Devon, and was produced by Simon Emmerson and Simon ‘Mass’ Massey from the Afro Celts, who helped to incorporate elements of traditional African, ambient and electronic dance music with the duo's characteristic folk style. It was the band's first album in twelve years to use a rhythm section. Lyrically, the album addresses communal and heritage values, and was described by the duo's lead singer Steve Knightley as a "cinematic style journey of the West Country." The album features unofficial third member Miranda Sykes on ten of its twelve tracks.
The English Folk Dance and Song Society is an organisation that promotes English folk music and folk dance. EFDSS was formed in 1932 when two organisations merged: the Folk-Song Society and the English Folk Dance Society. The EFDSS, a member-based organisation, was incorporated in 1935 and became a registered charity in 1963.
The Beverley Folk Festival is a three-day celebration of folk music, art, comedy and spoken word held in Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It was first organised in 1983 by the White Horse Folk Club and grew considerably over thirty years, being located both at Beverley Leisure Centre and at local venues in the town. In 2013, it moved to Beverley Racecourse and ran until 2018 when it fell into liquidation, resulting in a smaller programme of events being hosted in the town as Beverley Fringe Festival that year. It returns in 2022 again as the Folk Festival.
Faustus are a folk music duo based in the UK. The all-male membership brings together multi-instrumentalist musicians active across many other leading bands in the UK folk scene: Benji Kirkpatrick, Saul Rose and formerly Paul Sartin. They have been described as “bloke-folk” and aiming to “rescue contemporary folk from the curse of feyness”. In 2007 they received a 75th anniversary award from the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and they were nominated as best group at the 2009 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
The Garforth Arts Festival is an annual arts festival that takes place in Garforth, Leeds, England. The events take place over a two-week period in June and July, ending with a full-day ‘Playground Party’ on the final Saturday. The festival features a variety of art forms, including comedy, theatre, circus, music, literature, art and dance. Most events are commissioned educational projects involving children and professional artists.
TradFest Temple Bar is an annual music and culture festival that takes place in late January in Dublin, Ireland. Founded by the Temple Bar Company, a not-for-profit organisation who work on behalf of businesses in the cultural quarter of Temple Bar, Dublin, it celebrates traditional Irish and folk music and cultural offerings and was launched in 2005. One of the few independent events of its type in Ireland, it has become a major draw for international audiences travelling from the US, UK and Europe - attracting almost 25,000 visitors in 2017. Ticket prices are kept to a minimum price to ensure value for money for those attending. The festival has established its reputation by attracting some of the biggest names internationally in folk and traditional Irish music such as Billy Bragg, Donovan, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Martin Carthy, Maria McKee, Fairport Convention, Eddi Reader, Sarah Jarosz, Ralph McTell, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Steeleye Span and Levellers. Notable Irish acts who have performed include Glen Hansard, Aoife O’Donovan, Damien Dempsey, Declan O’Rourke, Paul Brady, Mundy, Mick Flannery, Maura O’Connell, Finbar Furey, The Dublin Legends, Clannad, Altan, Beoga, Martin Hayes, Kila and Stockton's Wing.
Sean Lakeman is an English folk musician and record producer.
The Cecil Sharp Project was a multi-artist, residential commission to create new material based on the life and collections of the founding father of the English Folk Revival Cecil Sharp.
Wake the Union is the sixteenth studio album by British folk duo Show of Hands. Although their fifteenth studio album, it is their eighth in their "canon" of studio albums. The release follows the successful Arrogance Ignorance and Greed (2009) and the limited edition albums Covers 2 (2010) and Backlog 2 (2011). Recorded and produced by Mark Tucker, the album takes a strong influence from both English and American folk music and was created as a "journey through of [the two countries'] landscapes united by a common tongue and musical heritage". The album again features their unofficial third member Miranda Sykes. The album was also described by Knightley as a direct continuation of Arrogance Ignorance and Greed, although critics saw it as very distinct in its own right. The album was also a 20th anniversary celebration for the duo.
References
↑ Shrewsbury Folk Festival website, sourced 27 August 2013
↑ 2007 Shrewsbury Folk Festival T-shirt and information from following years' programmes
↑ 2008 Shrewsbury Folk Festival official programme
↑ 2009 Shrewsbury Folk Festival official programme
↑ 2010 Shrewsbury Folk Festival official programme
↑ 2011 Shrewsbury Folk Festival advance publicity leaflet
↑ 2012 Shrewsbury Folk Festival official programme
↑ 2013 Shrewsbury Folk Festival official programme
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
