Folk music by the sea in Broadstairs

Wantsum entertain with a leapfrog at Broadstairs Folk Week

When: 10th – 17th August 2018

Where: Broadstairs, Kent

£: Ticket prices vary, both festival tickets and tickets for individual events are available. Pub gigs are free

What is it?

The 53rd Broadstairs Folk Week rolls into town this month, with hundreds of musicians and performers in almost every available venue in the Kent town.

Folk traditions from across the British Isles and Ireland will be celebrated at the event with Kathryn Tickell & the Darkening, Jez Lowe, Tom McConville, Jed Grimes and Pons Aelius hailing from the North East; Jim Causley, The Longest Johns and Harbottle & Jonas from the west country; Keith Kendrick & Sylvia Needham, Mrs Ackroyd Band and Narthen from a medley of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire; the Sharon Shannon Band, and John Doyle from Ireland; and the Elephant Sessions from Scotland.

Kent’s musicians will also play a big part in Broadstairs Folk Week. Tim Edey, Patron of Folk Week, will feature solo in a marquee concert, and alongside Luke Daniels as a duo.  The ever-popular Kent Song Collective will present a new show by Bob Kenward, Under the Green Bough, exploring farming in song, from heavy horses to the Green Revolution.  There’ll be old and new songs, with plenty of audience involvement.

Blowzabella will perform at Broadstairs Folk Week

Other bands from Kent will include bluegrass band Gentlemen of Few; singer songwriters Sally Ironmonger and Brian Carter, Pete Collins, co-host of the Neptune singarounds, master harp player Al Clark, Hot Rats, Hobo and the Hippies, and the Foot Down ceilidh band.

Families and young people will be well catered for at Folk Week with a daily free Hobby Horse Club; which this year will feature the Inspirations Theatre company and a new band Giddy Yup, plus the mascot of the festival Clarence and the Hooden Horses.

The Hill Top Ceilidh band will invite young musicians between 12 and 20 years to join them in creating a Band in a Weekend (or even a Band in a Day); and Alphonse Daudet Touna will create a family band with steel drums at the heart of it.

There will also be a Creative Tent at the campsite and a daily Magic Club at lunchtimes, tucked away in Crampton Tower Museum. A family friendly Day of Song and a Day of Dance will also feature during the week.

This year there will be a new venue in St. Peter’s Church Hall, just around the corner from the new campsite location at Dane Court School, and a new Dancers ticket for committed dancers who want to make the most of every day.

There’ll be plenty of gigs in small venues such as the local pubs

Morris sides will make a great contribution to the colour and music around the town, and this year there will be many returning sides such as Hartley, Bishop’s Gundulf, Loose Women, Wantsum, Offcumdens, Kent Korkers and Pork Scratchings.  New attendees will include Brixton Tatterjacks and Black Dragon Morris.

The headline acts will include Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri, and Blowzabella who will be celebrating their 40th anniversary with a concert, workshops and a full-on ceilidh.

There will be workshops in music, song and dance for all standards, from beginners to advanced, including a masterclass with melodeon supremo Andy Cutting.

There will also be plenty of smaller, more intimate venues, where visitors will be able to see artistes including Cohen Braithwaite Kilcoyne, Narthen, Paul James of Blowzabella, Alice Jones, and Banter.

More info: broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk