Thanks for coming, hope you had a blast - and we hope to see you again next year!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
About Me
- The Co-operative Cambridge Folk Festival
- The Cambridge Folk Festival is one of the premier music events in Europe and one of the longest running and most famous folk festivals in the world. It has become hugely popular and a regular sell out attracting ten thousand people, many of whom return year after year. The Festival is renowned for its eclectic mix of music and a wide definition of what might be considered folk. The best traditional folk artists from the UK and Ireland rub shoulders with more contemporary acts, the finest American country, blues and roots artists, acclaimed singer songwriters and even the odd pop star. Bluegrass, gospel, cajun, zydeco, jazz, world, klezmer and a ceilidh are also regular features. The line up has reflected the many changes in the music scene from the 60s to the present and is always a hotbed mix of the old and the new. The list of performers who have appeared reads like a who’s who and the Festival has been a launching pad for many now well known artists.
EXCELLENT FESTIVAL -AGAIN FAVOURITES ARE CAROLINA CHOCOLATE DROPS, QUEBE SISTERS UNTHANKS, PINK MARTINI,UKOGB, LISSEY TO NAME A FEW, JUST A TAD DISAPPOINTED AND BEMUSED BY HARPER SIMON'S PERFORMANCE!!
ReplyDeletejay says good weekend drop off are bit of a shambles
ReplyDeletevolume not so good ,screens very good should have had them years ago .don't blame Harper simon his management must have let him down clearly did not have the material or experience to perform at this level..thank you ..........
sorry drop off area a bit of a shambles
ReplyDeleteHad a great time, the screens were a big bonus. Only complaint was the toilets were a disgrace this year, after being so brilliant last year. So many problems with taps and toilets, and when I informed 1 member of staff a toilet I flushed spewed water out of the back she said 'Yes, we know about that' and yet no-one had put an 'Out of Order' sign on it!She seemed to think it was too much trouble when I suggested someone should actually do it!
ReplyDeleteBack home in Belgium and thinking with warm feelings at the festival. A great weekend full of fantastic music! See you next year!!
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this years festival fo me the highlight of the whole week was the "quebe sisters" ...How good were they !!!..When i was little my mum used play Andrews Sisters records all the flippin time and i heard "dont sit under the apple tree" so many times i did'nt want to sit under the apple tree i wanted to take a flippin big axe to it and hack it to bits , since then the mere suggestion of a 3 part harmony group is enough to make me break out in boils and run screaming for the door !!.. When the three girls took the stage i feared the worst and ran for the exit leaving a trail of folding chairs , picnic blankets, cucumber sandwiches and assorted plastic cutlery scattered in my wake ...then amid the ensuing fracas the girls started singing and hallelujah , there were no boils and no attacks of the screaming abdabs ,,,praise the lord i am cured !!...i actually loved them ..and their fiddle playing was a delight too !! ... now for the real test ... pass me that Andrews sisters album !!!
ReplyDeleteMy second favourite at this years festival was was "seasick steve" ..."is he folk" ? you may ask ; hes lived on the streets ,experienced hard times and now tells stories and writes songs about those experiences ...hes just about as "folk" as you can get !!!! ..it was impossible not to be touched by his humility and his gratfulness to everyone for "keeping him in a job" as he brilliantly played his weird array of cobbled together one ,two and three stringed instruments , accompanied just by his buddy on drums ... it was truely inspirational . I am off now to make a banjo out of an old dog dish some clingfilm , a toilet brush and a couple of elastic bands .. i am sure it will sound just like the real thing !!!!
ReplyDeleteAnother great festival over. Only complaint was the sound. The volume was way too low. The only place to actually hear anything was right in the middle of the tents - and although this is great sometimes - my festival is also about sitting with friends and hearing something on in the background great I hadn't thought of going to see.
ReplyDeleteAlso did the silly hat competition actually happen? I saw lots of great hats. Pictures were taken but we didn't see an announcement? The kids with us were really disappointed. As for the music - Seasick Steve is always a favorite - and new ones for me were Pink Martini and the Jolly boys. Happy days.
ReplyDeleteWas initially disappointed by advertised line-up, so only bought tickets for Friday and Saturday. In the end it was great, and I really regret not buying the full festival ticket like previous years. Volume was strangely low at times (could hear Natalie Merchant's songs, but not a word that she said). Big screens looked small but actually worked really well when the cameras went close up. My fave was Carolina Chocolate Drops. One complaint; please don't make the CDs soooo expensive next time. I've bought mine via amazon; Imelda May - less than £5 versus £13 at Festival!
ReplyDeleteFantastic festival. Joe Pug was my favourite. The screens make a huge difference especially if you are there with children. We couldn't see a thing last year. What about screens for stage 2? I thought the staff were great - particularly those on the campsite. Soooooo pleasant. Hello to Eilis and also to Rachel who did a fantastic job up at the Hub. My kids were involved in that and got so much out of it. All back in Ireland now and on our way to another festival......!
ReplyDeleteMy first time at the Cambridge Folk Festival and I haven't been disappointed! In fact, I loved it! Loved the music and most of the artists playing there, that I've never heard before and loved the safe feeling atmosphere, walking around etc... Shame there are no showers though... I know, it's not a proper campsite, but still, portable showers would be really nice for a long weekend... just a suggestion for the future years. I'm still thinking of coming back next year anyway! It was a very good weekend indeed!
ReplyDeleteI didn't find the volume a problem unlike a couple of contributors - I found it plenty loud enough even when watching from the outside on the screens(this may be due to the fact that I'm 60 and no longer wish to be deafened by loud music). Sometimes in the past too loud music from one tent can spoil performances in other, especially the Club Tent
ReplyDeletemy frist festival and not my last, line up was great,camp site very friendly and felt very safe.
ReplyDeleteshame some people need to be a selfish. and barge pass people in the arena also when it rained poeple sitting in the tents would not make room ban the blankets ? for next year
Why worry about a few people with a blanket? If the blanket was not meant to be stood on it would not be on the floor!! Stand up for yourselves and get in there. Been going to CFF myself for 26 years on the trot and feel that it's lost its appeal. Same ole same ole tent police, Blanket Police, Chair Police, Reading the News Paper Police, heath and stupidity Police, and all the other kind of Policing that CCC have intrduced police. There are so many better events out there now, with more choice at them, better facilities, and much better value for money. Don't take so long to brake the habit as I did. You should all stop the moaning and see what other festivals are available:)
ReplyDeleteThank you Cambridge once again.
ReplyDeleteI've been going now for 11 years and this year proved to be one of the best ones I've attended. An eccletic mix as ever how you define the word "folk" but hey this is the beauty of the Festival.
I had a rock and roll moment - shouldn't that be folk? I was the young woman who received a kiss from Seasick Steve on Friday evening.
Highlights for me were; Pink Martini, Natalie Merchant, Imelda May with Sharron Shannon, the Ukele Orchestra of GB, Kathy Matae, The Unthanks, Pink Martini, Seasick Steve et al.
Lowlights; the litter people dropped and couldn't be bother to bin it, big picnic blankets and lack of facilities for cyclists to park their bikes.
Shame about Harper Simon as nerves seem to get the better of him and the audience didn't exactly warm to him.
Here's to next year!
I for one must have been at a parallel festival,because Cambridge certainly is not the magnificant spectacle it once was !
ReplyDeleteThis is meant to be a music festival,yet on Friday we had virtually nothing before 6 apart from Sharon Shannon and some other very poor quality bands who would not even get a spot in my local. The famous club tent was empty and the only other thing happening was an over long Ceilidh lesson.So,it's goodbye to Cambridge from me,you have lost way !
This was our first visit to the Cambridge Folk Festival and we were not disappointed in the end. We have a motor home and had booked a place on the main site because I have a disability. This was fine but we were sent the wrong permit and consequently were sent to different entrances because no one seemed to know what we should do or where we should go. As you can imagine it is not easy to manoeuvre a motor home in a jam of traffic. By the time it was sorted our nerves were slightly frayed.
ReplyDeleteThis inauspicious start did not detract from a great festival. We were delighted by the eclectic mix of music; friendly, relaxed atmosphere, helpful staff and good viewing areas for people who have to use wheelchairs.
We loved Sharon Shannon and Imelda May, the Burns Unit, Lunasa, Seth Lakeman, Joe Pug and The Unthanks in particular to name but a few. Rachel Unthanks singing lesson was an excellent bonus.
We bought memorabilia including a poster of the festival but when we opened the cardboard container it was empty! We were at home by this time and wondered how many people had the same experience.
Thanks to all who worked so hard to keep this going. We'll be back next year but hope there maybe some access to electricity. Who knows, we may even find the elusive poster.
Forgot to say Dervish were fantastic but also loved Natalie Merchant, Julie Fowlis, Show of Hands and The Carolina Chocolate Drops.
ReplyDelete