End of Festival Survey

Bellowhead finished their set just over 12 hours ago,and we'll soon be thinking about 2011.

But before we do that, we hope you had a fantastic festival and we'd like your comments and thoughts on the last four days.

This year there are two ways to leave your thoughts, we have an

Official Festival Survey

that has replaced the old paper feedback form - there's lots of space for extended comments should you wish to leave any!

And of course we'd love you to comment here on the blog. We'll read every single comment that is left on both the blog and the official survey.

Over to you....

Webcast schedule

SP Holding Main Stage Broadcast Schedule

Click here to watch

Friday Evening
19.30 - 19.35 Welcome song with Owen Lewis
19.35 - 20.35 Adrian Edmondson & the Bad Shepherds
20.45 - 21.45 Lucy Kaplansky
22.00 - 23.30 The Michael McGoldrick Big Band

Saturday Afternoon
13.00 - 13.30 Oleg Ponomarev’s Koshka
13.45 - 14.45 Drever McCusker Woomble with Heidi Talbot & Boo Hewerdine
14.55 - 15.50 Richard Shindell
16.00 - 17.00 Karen Matheson Band

Saturday Evening
19.30 - 20.30 Adrienne Young
20.40 - 21.45 Richard Shindell & Lucy Kaplansky
22.00 - 23.30 Dervish & guests

Sunday Afternoon
12.45 - 13.45 The Old Dance School
13.55 - 14.55 Nancy Kerr & James Fagan
15.05 - 15.50 Chuck Brodsky
16.00 - 17.00 Genticorum

Sunday Evening
19.30 - 20.30 Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling
20.35 - 21.35 Billy Bragg
22.00 - 23.30 Afro Celt Sound System

Monday Afternoon
13.00 - 13.55 Mawkin:Causley
14.05 - 15.05 Hans Theessink
15.15 - 16.15 John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett
16.30 - 18.00 Bellowhead

Getting here.....

Nearly there!

The set up team have been working hard over the whole week, and lots weekend stewards will be arriving tomorrow in preparation for final briefings early on Friday morning.

We missed most of the rain today, and only had an hour or so of showers from 4pm onwards. The site is in great condition and the weather for the festival looks fine - it always gets a little chilly in the evenings though, so don't forget something warm!

Our main website has full directions to the festival site, and the AA signs will be in place tomorrow, but for those travelling under the guidance of SatNav, the GPS co-ords are

N 52° 43.020
W 002° 45.742

(if you copy these into Google Earth, they take you to within a few feet of one of entrances)

and the 'real' address is

West Mid Showground
Berwick Road
Shrewsbury
SY1 2PF

Hope you all have a safe journey, and we'll see you over the weekend!

Site set up

The site set up has been in full swing, and we're well on track to be ready ahead of Friday.

All the main marquees are built and the stages in place - lighting will be in place soon and the sound guys were arriving on site as I left. Over the next 36hours everyone will be working hard to finish the build.

If you pre-booked a yurt, then the above picture shows them in the process of being built, I had a peek inside one that was finished and it looked great!

A message from Cara

Hi Everyone.

I am so very sorry for not being able to perform at the Festival this weekend. I'm currently seven and a half months pregnant and have been advised by my doctors that I shouldn't attend.

Some of you may already be aware of what happened last time I performed when I was this pregnant... I went into labour onstage and gave birth not long after the concert...so for all our sakes I wouldn't want anything like that happening again.

I thought I might be up to it, hence the lateness of the announcement, however, the decision has been sensibly forced upon me by my consultants.

I am very disappointed that I won't be there, but I understand that I may be appearing next year.

Here's wishing you all have great craic and enjoy the music. I'll be thinking of you and watching online with my swollen feet up.

Much love
Cara x

Cara Dillon / Karen Matheson Band

Cara Dillon

We're disappointed to inform you that due to illness, Cara will not be able to appear at the festival this year.

Cara is 8 months pregnant and unwell, and has been advised to rest by her doctor, making her trip to Shrewsbury not possible.

While this is disappointing, the safety of Cara and baby are more imporatant than a single show, and we understand the situation and wish Cara and Sam well for the coming months. We'll do everything we can to bring Cara to Shrewsbury in 2011.

Karen Matheson Band

We're pleased to announce that Cara's Saturday afternoon slot on the main stage (4pm - 5pm) will be filled by Karen Matheson and her fantastic band.
The lead singer of Capercaillie is a natural fit for Cara's slot, as she occupies similar musical ground covering both traditional and contemporary song.

This will be Karen's first English festival appearance this year with her full band, and a coup for Shrewsbury - while we're understandably disappointed that Cara can't make her show, we're excited to have such a high profile act playing at the festival.

Weather Weather Weather Weather - what's it going to do?

Watching the forecast on Metcheck is always fun - the festival week has been changeable for the 7 days or so but it's beginning to settle down, so here's the forecast as of 1pm Friday 20 August.

You can click the forecast to take you to an up-to -date 14 forecast for the site at any time.

Looking good though, and if anything the nights are looking a little warmer than usual.

Free Wi-Fi on the festival site

Last year we had a small pocket of free wi-fi on the festival site, it worked perfectly but had limited range.

This year the technical team of Charles & Heather, have set up a system that covers the whole site.

So wherever you are on the site, you will be able to pick up emails and browse the internet for FREE!

The SFF Pork Pie!

Once again, we're proud to team up with Boxfresh Organics again this year - we believe we have the best festival shop anywhere with a unique range of fresh food and provisions, and this year they’ve extended their product range.

So in addition to freshly baked breads delivered fresh every morning, a full range of organic meats (including everything for breakfast) and more; this year they’ve added a range of pork pies from Simply Pies in Whitchurch, and there’s an exclusive Shrewsbury Folk Festival Pie (pork and Shropshire Blue cheese) you’ll be able to try!

See you in the queue!

Programmes

The festival programmes have been printed and delivered, and if you pre-ordered one then it should be delivered in the next couple of days.

If you haven't pre-ordered one, then from early next week, you will be able to pick a copy up from the tourist information centre in Shrewsbury (next to Rowley's House). UPDATE - have dropped the programmes off should you wish to call in and buy one.

Time to start planning your festival weekend.......

Dervish and special guests

On Saturday night, Irish legends Dervish are playing the mainstage - but you may have noticed they're billed as Dervish and special guests.

We can confirm that they will have 4 fantastic guests with them, and they are...

It should be quite a night, we're looking forward to hearing what the band and all-star guest list come up with!

2010 Map

The programme has now been signed off and will be printed soon - as ever there's a map in the back, but here's a copy for you to have a look at now and to see how we've laid the site out this year.