Top names line up for Warwick Folk Festival...

Top names in British folk share the billing with belly dancers, Appalachian flatfoot dancers and a samba band in a packed and lively programme lined up for this year’s Warwick Folk Festival.



England’s leading acoustic roots duo Show Of Hands (pictured above), internationally acclaimed celtic-latin fusion band Salsa Celtica and award-winning squeezebox and fiddle duo John Spiers and Jon Boden are among the big attractions for thousands of visitors to Warwick next weekend.

The entertainment starts on Thursday with a warm-up concert of choirs headlined by the phenomenal and hilarious Australian choir Spooky Men’s Chorale, plus a folk-meets-jazz concert by rising star singer Becky Wolff backed by members of Warwickshire’s multi-generation band Steamchicken.

Staged in the grounds of Warwick School, Myton Road, the main festival programme also features celtic dance band Peatbog Faeries with their brass section The Wayward Boys, Newcastle’s virtuoso fiddle-player Tom McConville, leading exponent on concertina and Northumbrian pipes Alistair Anderson and recently-established alt-country band ahab, following their storming performance at last year’s Fairport Cropredy Convention.

There’s also a talented selection of the many young acts on the folk festival scene including teenage fiddle and guitar duo Sarah Horn and James Cudworth and Oxfordshire duo Infinite Cherries featuring 14-year-old multi-instrumentalist Sam Mabbett and 13-year-old Welsh Celtic Fiddle Champion, Dylan Cairns-Howarth.

Last year’s winner of the Fred Jordan Memorial Competition for young singers at Bromyard Folk Festival, Kirsty Bromley will be appearing as will Derbyshire singer and guitarist Lucy Ward, already a big name on the UK festival scene at the age of 18.

The festival also includes The Warwick Fringe, a huge choice of free music and dance events throughout the town centre.

Hundreds of morris and sword dancers, mummers, Appalachian dancers and even belly dancers will be filling the streets with noise, colour and spectacle and you’ll find plenty of lively music and song sessions in pubs and restaurants.

Warwick’s Market Place plays host to open air concerts with BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician Of The Year, Rua Macmillan, and superb banjo and harmonica duo Dan Walsh and Will Pound next Saturday plus local acts Harvey, Carly Ryder and more from Becky Wolff and the Little Chicken Band on Sunday afternoon.

* Tickets available from 01926 776438 or http://www.warwickfolkfestival.co.uk.