Folk Alliance Conference, Memphis, TN

Later this month festival directors Alan Surtees and Neil Pearson will represent the Shrewsbury Folk festival at the annual North American Folk Alliance conference in Memphis, Tennessee.

The conference, from February 20th-24th, is one of the largest gatherings of folk musicians, record labels, agents and festival organisers in the world, and is an important event in the folk music calendar.

We’ll both be involved speaking on panels over the weekend; Alan will be discussing ‘what is required to stage a successful grass roots event’, and I'll be a panel member on ‘what is going on outside North America in the World of folk’.

We’re proud to be involved in the conference, and the chance to represent the Shrewsbury Folk Festival at such a high profile event is a real honour and recognition of just how much the festival has grown.

We’re obviously looking forward to the trip, as well as a working conference it is full of music with hundreds of artists holding official showcases – we will post some photos on our return!

Nancy Kerr, James Fagan & Robert Harbron

We're now very close to completing our line-up, but still have a few pieces to add to the jigsaw over the coming weeks.

We’re pleased to announce that we have added Nancy Kerr, James Fagan & Robert Harbron to the main concert schedule; Nancy & James were brilliant at the 2006 festival, and it's great to have them with us again for 2008.

They will play on both our main concert stages as Kerr Fagan Harbron.

Nancy & James will be on the festival site all weekend, so there may be other opportunities to see and hear them (workshops etc) – we’ll confirm everything a little closer to the event.

Sessions & Workshops

As well as a full concert schedule we have a huge and varied range of music & dance workshops and sessions at the festival; and tailor these to cover all ability levels from improvers right through to the more experienced.

The full details of these events all come together a little later in the year, but we’ve already finalised our Irish Session.

We have Lúnasa at the festival this year, and are pleased to confirm that Kevin Crawford, the band’s World Class Irish flute player will lead our Irish Session.

This is a rare opportunity for festival attendees to come and join in a session and share a tune with one of the World’s finest Irish musicians – everyone’s invited, and it’s guaranteed to be a memorable session for all!

We’ll post more details closer to the event, as well as information on the other sessions and workshops.

2008 Details and our new website

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We're proud to announce the details of our 2008 festival, and tickets are on sale from 9am, 1st January 2008.

Below you'll find details of some of the acts who will headline the festival, and information on our early bird ticket prices.

Our 2008 line-up includes
Richard Thompson
Bellowhead
Oysterband
Lunasa
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
The Tim Van Eyken Band
Pete Morton
Rory McLeod
New Rope String Band
Máire Ní Chathasaigh & Chris Newman
The Demon Barber Roadshow
ColvinQuarmby
Steve Tilston
The Wilsons
Bella Hardy Trio
Eilen Jewell Band
John Wesley Harding
Kerfuffle
Pete Lockett & Joji Hirota
Boka Halat
Cloudstreet
The Doonans
The Wilsons
Braebach
Sheelanagig
4Square
Elbow Jane
.....and many more!

Ticket Details

Tickets are on sale from 9am, 1st January 2008, and until April 1st they are available at a special early bird rate.

Full ticket details are available here, but the main 4 days ticket breakdowns are:

Adult £75
Youth (11-17) £44.50
Family (2 adults, 2 youths) £202.50
Children under 11 FREE

New website

To coincide with the 2008 announcement we have an updated and totally re-designed website – amongst other things it has more complete details of artists booked and who is on when, there’s information about stewarding, and a comprehensive festival FAQ.
Our website can be found here

Line-up sneaky peek

We’re putting the finishing touches to our new website in preparation for the announcement of the line-up, and the start of ticket sales on Jan 1st.

To whet your appetite for the 1st, here’s an exclusive glimpse at some of the line-up for 2008……..amongst the acts booked we have Richard Thompson (solo) , Lunasa and the Oysterband (both as a concert band AND a ceilidh band!).

Check back on the 1st for a full list and ticket details.

2008 Line-up announcement and ticket details

We will be officially announcing our line-up on January 1st 2008, and tickets will be available to purchase from this date – as usual you will be able to buy tickets online, over the phone or through the post.

The line-up and tickets details will be announced on our main website, here on the blog, in an email to our mailing list and to the press.

If you would like to buy tickets between now and the New Year (perhaps as gifts!), then this is possible, but ONLY over the telephone – you’ll need to ring Sandra on 01746 768813.

Hope you all have a great Christmas, and we’ll be in touch in 2008!

Festival Videos

We're busy putting the 2008 festival together, and we're expecting to announce artists and ticket details towards the end of this year, with tickets on sale in the New Year.....only a month or two to wait!

In the meantime, we have our videos from the festival on our website - they're broken down into days and there's almost an hours' worth of performances and interviews.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2007 videos

Submitted photos

In addition to the official photographs for the festival (available on our website here), we’ve opened up a gallery where festival attendees can submit their own pictures.

The details are listed on our website, but this is the chance for up to 5 of your pictures be hosted on the Shrewsbury Folk Festival website, and be viewed by over 100,000 people throughout the year!

We're sure you all have some great pictures out there, and we'd be thrilled to see them and share them with others.

There are no restrictions on what you can submit; we’ll happily host pictures of musicians, the site, your friends – basically, if it’s related to the 2007 festival and you’re happy to send it to us, then we’d be pleased to display it in our gallery.

2007 Festival Merchandise Blow Out!

We have a small number of shirts left over from the festival this year – we sold a large number of shirts over the weekend, but it’s inevitable that we would have a limited number of styles and sizes remaining.

We’re offering these shirts at just
£4 for adult sizes and
£3 for the child shirts
postage is £1.50 regardless of how many shirts you order.

We don’t have a huge amount of anything left, but those that are very limited are highlighted in italics and greyed out. As we sell out we'll remove the item (or size) from the blog.

If you'd like to order any of the items below please contact Sandra, email and phone details are on the main festival website, thanks.

The details of availability and sizes are below, if you'd like exact measurements these are listed in the comments section of this post.

Blue Small Logo
Small , Large, XLarge

Brown Small Logo
XLarge

Childs Logo Shirt Orange
Medium, Large

Green S*F*F fitted girls/ladies shirt
Small , Medium, Large, XLarge

Green S*F*F - unisex
sold out

Black Large Logo
Medium, Large, XLarge

We also have a small number of posters available;
these are rolled in a tube and cost £4.00 plus £1 postage.

Artists' report - part 4

The festival’s patron, John Jones of the Oysterband, came to check out the site and was full of praise for the new home of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

The Oysterband played the festival in The Quarry last year but John said the new location had sealed the success of the event.

“It’s a fantastic venue. I have walked around the site and looked at it and it’s great, everything in one place.”

John also had great words for the main stage at the showground site – “Any artist would want to perform on that stage – the lights are good, the sound is great, it’s a brilliant venue to play.”

A stalwart of festivals and an artist who has performed many times at the festival is comedian and musician Keith Donnelly. He performed on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and reflected on the festival he has seen to grow over the years.

“I’m never happier than at a folk festival,” he said. “A folk festival is the best audience bar none – I really enjoyed this year but I’ve never been heckled by so many dogs before!”

Keith, who performed at the festival in its town centre location last year, summed up the 2007 event. “It feels like the Shrewsbury Folk Festival has come home.”

Artists' report - part 3

Kathryn Tickell was another artist who made the long journey to Shrewsbury – despite a 5.30am start from her North East home, Kathryn and her band had the festival audience on their feet. She’s no stranger to Shropshire having performed in Bridgnorth several times before, but it was her first time at Shrewsbury.

She said the early start had been worth it: “I really enjoyed the gig. I had the feeling it was going to be a disaster – one of the band had been performing the ceilidh tent for two hours and one had to run over to be in time and had been at Shrewsbury on Friday, then at Towersey on Saturday and came back to the festival on Sunday. But it was a really good crowd.”

Another group delighted with the Shrewsbury set-up was contemporary folk duo Megson, who performed on the main stage on Sunday afternoon before carrying out a songwriting workshop and another set in marquee two.

Their fresh approach of combining traditional folk elements with influences like Simon and Garfunkel received rousing support with the Shrewsbury crowd.

“This is the nicest festival we’ve performed at this year, “said Stu Hanna. “The site’s very good.” The other half of Megson, Debbie Palmer, enjoyed the backstage facilities too: “Some of the places we’ve played you end up having to change and put up your make-up in the toilets – it’s not glamorous!”

The “really good” crowd vibe continued into the final day of the festival on Monday which saw the event culminate with legend Paul Brady receiving a standing ovation for his incredible set which marked the end of a hugely successful festival.

Earlier, the American bluegrass four piece Crooked Still had got a rapturous response for their storming performance which saw cello player Rushad Eggleston strip to his underwear - having only started in a shirt, boxer shorts and a hat!

Despite having jetted in from Denmark following three days at the Tonder festival, the performance was one of the highlights of the festival, packing out the main stage on Monday afternoon. The band’s catnap backstage in their hired van helped them catch up from their 4.30am start for their flight to Manchester.

Rushad and banjo player Greg Liszt both said a lack of sleep often gave the band the adrenaline rush they needed to perform well.

“It was a great audience, a great feeling,” said Rushad. “You could feel the energy.” The artists’ facilities also got the thumbs up from the group despite their fleeting visit – with Rushad’s high jinks with sugarcubes, washing up liquid, and leaping over tables livening up the backstage complex! .”

Artists' report - part 2

One band adding an international flavour to this year’s festival was Canadian trio The Wailin’ Jennys. Their set included everything from an Emmylou Harris classic to a song inspired by a mosquito at 4am and ended with ‘One Voice’, a song that perfectly illustrated why the Jennys are enjoying such outstanding success.

Nicky Mehta, one of the founding Jennys, said the crowd at Shrewsbury reflected the growing popularity that folk based music is enjoying across the UK and the rest of the world.
”We did a handful of concerts in the UK last summer but we’ve been busy in the US and Canada this year. It’s great to be in Shrewsbury.
”Looking out at the crowd, there was a real mix of ages including young people. You can really feel the resurgence of folk and traditional music in England.”

Acclaimed singer/songwriter Richard Shindell travelled from Buenos Aries to perform at Shrewsbury – his first performance in England in 10 years. Shrewsbury was the only folk festival he played on a whirlwind tour of seven concerts in the UK.
Despite very little sleep because of his gruelling schedule, Richard and his guitar held the audience in the main stage spellbound on Sunday evening, with a set that showed his talent as a writer and performer.

Speaking after his afternoon performance in marquee two, he said the audience had been attentive and he had been looking forward to performing on the main stage.
“It’s virgin territory for me, very few people know who I am. Out of the thousands in the audience maybe a couple of hundred will know who I am. I like that – it gives me a chance to show what I can do, and they won’t have heard my jokes before so they’ll laugh!”
Richard, who also did a ‘meet the artist’ session, was full of praise for the festival. “It seems a great place, everything is wonderful!”

Artists' report - part 1

Over the course of the festival, we had Jo (our festival PR advisor) speaking to a huge range of artists and gauging opinion on the festival and the new site – she obviously had a ball speaking to the artists, and the results are a four part piece that will appear on the blog over the next few days………

So, it’s all over for another year – but what did some of the artists think of the Shrewsbury Folk Festival at its new home?

As well as fantastic all-on-one-site facilities for festival goers, performers enjoyed a new approach to hospitality, with a special backstage complex of green rooms and a refreshment area to relax in.

Saturday night headliners Show of Hands had played the festival at its original location in Bridgnorth twice before but it was their first time in Shrewsbury. They raised the roof of the massive marquee to a standing room only crowd of 3,200 who packed the main stage to hear them.

Steve Knightley said it had come as no surprise that Shrewsbury had blossomed into the festival it has become.

“It was always a really well run festival, led by an ambitious organisation - you always had the feeling it would be going places.”

Performing at Shrewsbury saw the pair finishing off a punishing schedule of summer festivals, but Phil Beer said they had loved it.

“We been performing at about two festivals a weekend – anything from 500 paying guests at Dartmoor to this crowd at Shrewsbury - it’s been a mega year but we love it.”

Finishing off with an encore of ‘Roots’, the rallying call to rediscover our heritage through music like folk, Steve Knightley paid tribute to the crowd who responded “as only a folk festival crowd can”.

It was the first time at Shrewsbury for another act which takes folk festivals by storm – Salsa Celtica, the high energy performers who fuse traditional and latin music in an amazing blend.

Lead vocal Lino Rocha, who lead the band of 10 through a fast and furious performance, said Shrewsbury was in a prestigious list of other festivals the band had performed at this summer.

Speaking back stage before their late night session saw festival goers dancing in the aisle of the main marquee, Lino said the band’s schedule this summer had included Cambridge, the world music festival WOMAD and the “one where there is lots of mud” (aka Glastonbury). Salsa Celtica were going on to perform at gigs in Spain and the US in the month after Shrewsbury.

The band, made up of an eclectic mix of nationalities including Venezuelan, Scottish, Australian, Irish and Tanzanian, said they had been treated like “royalty” at the festival and thoroughly approved of the incredible main marquee, again full to capacity. Another happy customer!

Photos

There are a good number of photos from the festival already online, the official pictures by Sabine Hutchinson from Virtual Shropshire are here

Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday

but there are hundreds of shots on the web from visitors to the festival,

for starters try this
there are more on flickr if you just search for Shrewsbury Folk Festival.

You should easily find pictures of almost all the acts up there - expect there to be lots of Rushad from Crooked Still on your journey for pictures!

If you have a gallery of shots from this years festival please leave a link in the comments, thanks.

It's over!

Well, we all hope you had a great festival and travelled home safely.

From an organisers point of view things went pretty smoothly, which is in no small part thanks to the stewards and you, the festival attendees.

We'll post some photos later this week, but we'd love you to leave your comments on the blog letting us know what we did right and what we did wrong - we'll take these all into account as we plan for 2008.

For me Crooked Still were the best act of the weekend, closely followed by Bellowhead and Richard Shindell....let us know what worked for you!

It's here!!! (well it will be tomorrow)

The site has really come together today, with traders and caterers setting up for the weekend, the food tents, Panic Circus and other tents have shot up throughout the day.

The stages are complete and the light and sound rigs are all close to completion – we’re just about all set!

Didn’t have much time for photos today – but managed a quick look inside a deserted marquee 2 before the chairs go in.

marquee 2 - in the traditional Shrewsbury colours

Hope you all have a great festival!

Travelling to the site

Our website has full maps and directions to the festival site, but for those of you using satellite navigation the GPS co-ordinates are

N 52 43 020
W 002 45 742

These will get you to within 15 feet of the main entrance, but you will see the top of the main marquee well before this!

The postal address of the site is

Berwick Road
Shrewsbury
SY1 2PF

Travel well, and we’ll see you over the weekend.

We’ll post pictures from the festival has it happens, and a full report after the event.

Site set up

We’re well into the swing of things now, and all our main marquees are up - the main marquee is nothing short of spectacular.

If you head into Shrewsbury down the Mount then you can see it peeking up from a sea of trees as you drive into town, it looks like something out of a fairy tale!

Here are a couple of pictures from the site.

Marquee 1 at Shrewsbury

Marquee 2, almost complete

We now have more stewards on site who are setting up the tents that we use for artists reception, merchandise etc., and certainly by tomorrow we should have the majority of the site ready to go.

Initial site preparations

Preparations on the site began in earnest today, and the set up team are working hard at getting things ready for Friday.

We’ve had a really productive day and all three of our big marquees, the SP Holding Main Stage, Marquee 2 and the dance marquee are in various stages of completion.

Watching the preparatory work for the biggest marquee (see picture in “Lighting the Festival”) was interesting – the guy ropes are held in by 6 foot plus pegs that are driven into ground by a modified compact excavator with a pneumatic hammer.



The main poles for the biggest marquee are now up, and we feel all 3 marquees will be close to completion (if not completed) by tomorrow – we’ll post a set of photos of the whole site on Tuesday evening.

Activities in the town

Although we’ve moved from the Quarry to the West Midlands Showground, we’re committed to involving locals and bringing the festival into town.

There is a full programme of dancing in the Square and Quarry on Saturday and Sunday, plus there will be dancing at the Wheatsheaf, the Boathouse and St Alkmunds on these days

For those watching the dancing in the Square on Sat & Sun, we’ve teamed up with Innocent Smoothies who will be in there with their smoothie van to give away drinks to anyone watching!

We have music sessions programmed in at the Bird in Hand and Wheatsheaf over the weekend, but as is usually the case, impromptu session could happen anywhere.