Gate to Southwell Folk Festival 2013 

Oysterband, Show of Hands, Eliza Carthy & Jim Moray, and Home Service are the headline acts at the Gate to Southwell Folk Festival in June next year. 

Already regarded as one of the brightest and best music events in the Midlands, the festival has again attracted a heady mix of major artists and rising talent.  

The highly-decorated and acclaimed Oysterband play Southwell for the first time on Friday June 7.  Having recently walked away with three BBC Folk Awards for their collaboration with June Tabor, it’s likely to be their only festival appearance in the Midlands in 2013.  

Similarly, Eliza Carthy & Jim Moray - who headline on the Thursday night (June 6) - have been in the vanguard of the British folk revival and plan to share the stage with an eleven-piece supergroup featuring some of the folk scene’s finest musicians. 

The highly-respected and popular Show of Hands again headline the festival on Saturday night (June 8) while topping the bill on Sunday there’s Home Service, who were recently voted Best Live Act of 2012 at the BBC Folk Awards. 

The festival bill also includes folk stars such as Lucy Ward, the newly-reformed Faustus and Britain’s best double act Tim Edey & Brendan Power.  

“We’ve got the absolute cream of English folk appearing in Southwell in June 2013,” says festival director Mike Kirrage.  “It’s a growing family-orientated event, set in a beautiful location, that attracts great musicians to the East Midlands.  It gives a welcome tourist boost to the local community and continues to promote Southwell’s development as a cultural centre.” 

Although contemporary English folk is very strongly represented there’s also plenty of exciting and innovative talent from elsewhere.  In terms of Celtic connections, there’s Idlewild’s frontman Roddy Woomble and Alba award winners Rura from Scotland.  Ireland is also well represented with multi-instrumentalist Niamh Ni Charra, sibling trio The Henry Girls and in-demand guitarist John Doyle. 

But the greatest evidence of the growing international reputation of the Gate To Southwell Folk Festival is revealed in the billing of three eclectic and respected Canadian folk and roots music stars -  bluesman Matt Andersen from New Brunswick, power trio Genticorum from Quebec, and the sensational Gordie ‘Crazy Legs’ MacKeeman and his Rhythm Boys from Prince Edward Island – plus the extraordinary nine-piece brass and string fusion outfit Habadekuk from Denmark. 

There will be music events throughout Southwell during the long weekend, including in the Minster, and main concerts in the marquees on the festival site next to the famous National Trust Workhouse.  With a huge variety of new and established talent, an open mic stage, children’s entertainment, ceilidhs, street theatre, great food and drink stalls and more dancers than you can shake a stick or hanky, the Gate to Southwell festival promises to be a cultural highlight of 2013. 

Early Bird discounted festival tickets are on sale from now until February 28th 2013.