Enjoy the Fringe benefits of Warwick Folk Festival

Steamchicken Strollers. Photo courtesy of Steamchicken.

For your entertainment 35 events, with over 45 artists performing at over a dozen venues!

This is something to look forward to when the Warwick Folk Festival Fringe comes to town on Friday to Sunday, 28-30 July. And that’s not even counting the Morris dance displays.

While the main Folk Festival runs its busy programme of big name concerts, ceilidhs, kids’ events, workshops and sessions for ticketholders on the main Castle Park site, the pubs and bars of Warwick Town Centre will be packed with a rich choice of live music – and it’s all for free!

Everything from Irish sessions to Samba, from folk-rock to barbershop harmonies, and from European folk traditions to back-porch Appalachian music is there for the listening, and in some cases joining in.

Coventry Comhaltas. Photo courtesy of the Comhaltas.

The Friday evening sees folk entertainment from 8pm in The Roebuck Inn, Warwick Arms Hotel, Ronnies of Warwick, Warwick Conservative Club, and The New Bowling Green Inn plus a lively music session with Coventry Comhaltas in the Old Fourpenny Shop.

Highlights for Saturday lunchtime include close harmony singing by Shropshire group Rapsquillion making the most of the atmospheric acoustics of the Unitarian Chapel in High Street, plus some jaw-dropping simultaneous fiddle-playing and clog dancing from Tennessee’s champion Buck Dancer, Hillary Klug among the New Bowling Green guests.

The Sambassadors of Groove. Photo courtesy of the band.

And Sunday afternoon sees the Festival’s famous ‘Jazz Tour’ of five venues by celebrated ceilidh band with added horn section, the Steamchicken Strollers, giving a taste of their vast repertoire of traditional folk, jazz, blues and classic hits.

Not confined to the indoors, folk and folk-rock spills out into Warwick’s Market Place which hosts major open-air concerts on a stage set up in front of the Shire Hall steps – weather permitting! Saturday evening sees local folk-rock and prog band (or ‘frog’ band) Wychwood, followed by spectacle and rhythms of the Brazilian carnival courtesy of Leamington’s Sambassadors of Groove and rounded up by Coventry’s acclaimed singer-songwriter Rob Halligan complete with powerful five-piece band Homeward Hie.

Hilary Klug. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Sunday afternoon’s outdoor show features nationally renowned all-female trio Daisybell, Coventry’s ace guitarist and singer Craig Sunderland and a warm tribute to the music of Bob Dylan by Warwick line-up, Bob Phillips’ Dylan Rhythm Band. The concert begins at 12.30pm with the first public appearance of this year’s version of the Warwick Folk Festival Choir – the result of an annual project by choirmaster Bruce Knight to recruit and rehearse an army of singers (no experience necessary) to perform a rousing choice of folk songs from across the globe.

The full programme of event for the Festival – Including a breakdown of all the public Morris and traditional dance displays – is now available on www.warwickfolkfestival.co.uk/warwick-folk-music-festival/programme. Or you can find a list of all the free Fringe events on the CVFolk website: www.cvfolk.com/calendar.