This year’s Folk Weekend: Oxford will be going ahead, bringing the usual combination of joyful song, high-energy dance and raucous music, direct to your house.
In order to support artists and keep spirits up, Folk Weekend: Oxford has decided to go ahead with this year’s events and make the festival online. Performances will be a mix of ticketed and free events, which can be watched via Zoom and Facebook.
This year’s programme will include the ever-popular due Jackie Oates and Megan Henwood, topping the concert schedule on Saturday, alongside three-time BBC Folk Award nominees Gilmore & Roberts, and BBC Performing Arts fellow Rosie Hood.
New to the line up is a Friday headline event by festival patron John Spiers, who follows his Bellowhead bandmate Paul Sartin (Faustus, Belshazzar’s Feast), English fiddle-singer Bryony Griffith (Bedlam, Demon Barbers), and multi-instrumentalist Jo Freya (Blowzabella, Morai).
On the Sunday there will be a double-header with Reg Meuross and Findlay Napier, who will be sharing a stage for the first time, as well as banjo legend Dan Walsh, innovative clog dancer and musician Hannah James, and upcoming singer Iona Lane.
And if all this self-isolation is driving you a bit stir-crazy, why not join the Kitchen Ceilidh with 3sticks on the Saturday night?
As well as the ticketed events there will also be the usual programme of free events throughout the weekend. Oxfordshire artists including Jon Fletcher, Susanna Starling, Ben Avison, and Henderson:Hooper (who were due to perform on the Showcase Stages in venues across the city) will now set up their performance spaces at home, ready to stream their set live on the Folk Weekend: Oxford Facebook page.
For those who like to join in, there will be a virtual session room set up in Zoom all weekend, where people can drop in and share tunes and songs. There will be themed sessions at various times over the festival, including European music, Morris tunes, slow tunes for beginners, and various song shares. Folk Weekend fans will also be able to send in photos and videos of themselves dancing and playing at home, to be shared on social media.
When: 17th – 19th April 2020
Where: On Facebook and Zoom
£: Ticket prices vary for performances on Zoom (instructions will be sent to ticket holders). Facebook events are free
More info: www.folkweekendoxford.co.uk