One of Wiltshire’s Best
by Andy Fawthrop
Looking for something to do next weekend? One of Wiltshire’s biggest festivals is happening just up the road in Chippenham all over the late May Bank Holiday weekend. It’s also one of the largest folk festivals in the UK, and one of the longest running – this year they’re clocking up their 52nd festival……
The festival happens over four days at venues all over the town, and provides several streams of entertainment to suit most tastes. With over 650 performers already confirmed covering music concerts, workshops, dance/ ceilidhs, Morris dancing, storytelling and spoken word, and a wide range of children’s and other entertainment, there’ll be something going on in every town-centre street and pub, to say nothing of the thirteen dedicated stages and dance venues.
And the good news is that, aside from all the ticketed camping and music/ dance events, there’s plenty of FREE stuff too. Down at Island Park there’ll be community stages, a session beer tent (run by Moongazing Hare this was highly popular last year, and I’d thoroughly recommend it!), lots of pop-up food vendors (crepes, churros, Sri Lankan, vegan, Mexican, Japanese, ice cream etc), and craft stalls – all located alongside the beautiful River Avon. It’s got a great vibe and is a good family-friendly place to relax, soak up the atmosphere, and enjoy a session and entertainment with children, family and friends.
But with so much going on – you should see the bulging programme with its literally hundreds of events – we thought we’d take the chance before all the fun starts to preview and pick out some of the best stuff, and to highlight some of our favourite picks.
Overall, there’s a brilliant line up of music concerts featuring over 75 different acts, including:
- The East Pointers – hailing from Prince Edward Island in Canada. Their dancefloor-shaking, electro-trad glorious combination of folk/ pop sounds has already seen them acknowledged as musical trailblazers internationally. Their debut album Secret Victory won the 2017 JUNO Award for Traditional Roots Recording of the Year. Their 2023 EP House Of Dreams was nominated for a JUNO Award, and won Contemporary Roots Recording of the Year, Group Recording of the Year and Pop Recording of the Year at the 2023 East Coast Music Awards. Their headline show is on the Sunday night;
- Phil Beer & Paul Downes – two of the stalwarts of British folk music, and truly great musicians both. Their shows are not only musically entertaining but always delivered with great bantering humour. Their headlining set is on the Saturday night;
- Miranda Sykes – another of the folk world’s all-time great performers, Miranda has played bass with countless bands and line-ups, and has worked for over 20 years with folk royalty Show Of Hands. In 2024 she toured with Hannah Martin, paired a new Baring-Gould Centenary project with Jim Causley, and has toured a wide range of summer festivals. Catch her on the Monday night;
- Seth Lakeman – will be playing material from his new album The Granite Way. Catapulted into the spotlight after his album Kitty Jay received a nomination for the Mercury Music Prize in 2005, since then he’s produced multiple albums, toured worldwide and participated in several high-profile collaborations, most recently with Robert Plant’s band The Sensational Shape-shifters. His fiddle playing is simply stunning, and a joy to behold in live performance. He’ll be doing his thing on the Monday afternoon.
And then there’s a nearly forty different bands, including a great calling team for the dances and ceilidhs, with bands including Banter with Fee Lock, Sawney White Bird, Doug Eunson & Sarah Matthews, Portmanteau, Hinny & Joe Wass with callers Andrew Swaine, Bernie Culkin, Geoff Cubitt, John Stewart, Susanna Diamon, and more to meet every style.
Add to this nearly seventy different Morris sides from all over the UK, and over twenty-five children’s entertainers (including the simply hilarious and highly-talented Keith Donnelly), featuring music, dance, puppets, dressing up, play, workshops, meet-the-entertainer sessions, and you’ve got plenty to choose from, with different things for all members of the family.
Apart from the main venues and stages, there’ll be stuff going on in just about every pub, in the main streets, and anywhere else the performers can find a space. There’ll be some open mic sessions too.
Having been to many Chippenham Folk Festivals over the years (and indeed performed at a few!), I can highly recommend a trip out to one of Wiltshire’s best events – it’s colourful, it’s noisy, it’s busy, but most of all, it’s entertaining!
There’s still a limited number of day and event tickets, as well as full weekend season tickets (with or without camping) available. Or there’s also still time to volunteer to help with stewarding and venues (which qualifies you for a FREE ticket). All the information is on the festival’s website, together with ticketing information at www.chippfolk.co.uk/Tickets
devizine.com 