Following its inevitable postponement in 2020, Cromer’s popular music festival had hoped to be taking place at the town’s Pavilion Theatre on 7, 8 and 9 May in 2021. However, despite the crossing of many fingers for some months now, sadly Boris Johnson’s recent announcement of the Government’s ‘Roadmap to Recovery’ strategy regarding the Covid-19 crisis has forced the organiser to consider certain options for this year. With many hours of provisional negotiations already in hand, festival curator Scott Butler has worked tirelessly to secure the original line-up of artists booked for the 2020/2021 event to be the line-up that will make Folk on the Pier a special event in 2022. The new dates for the event will be 6, 7 and 8 May 2022.
Scott explains ‘the longer the latest lockdown continued and despite the roll out of the vaccine, it remained uncertain whether certain types of events could take place at their normally full capacity for the foreseeable future, and I felt it was unfair for the many loyal fans to be kept in the dark about any plans. With many coming from afar, as usual accommodation and travel needed to be arranged, so making the announcement now relieves them of those concerns’.
Renowned as ‘the best gig on the North Sea’, the event attracts a plethora of well-known and up-and-coming folk, folk-rock and acoustic artists from across the UK. ‘The line-up for 2020 was always going to be a special line-up; I am totally overwhelmed that those artists have such faith in Folk on the Pier that they have been willing to commit to a second postponement’.
With the unchanged line-up now in place, Scott and the Pavilion Theatre management are keen to reassure fans who had already purchased weekend passes for the original 2020 event, as well as individual concerts, that their tickets are valid for the same seat bookings in 2022.
The line-up is once again a ‘who’s who’ of award winners. Among the headliners are BAFTA Nominated TV Entertainer of the Year and The British Academy Gold Award of Composers recipient Richard Digance, and Wizz Jones who picked up a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
The ever-evolving Demon Barbers XL also won a BBC Radio Award for Best Live Act will present their new show ‘Rise Up’ and as always festival Patron Ashley Hutchings MBE who has been the recipient of numerous awards will present one of his latest special projects for the festival.
But it is not all about award winners – supporting acts include festival favourites the b Gerry Colvin Band, Feast of Fiddles, the Spikedrivers, Kevin Dempsey, Alan Reid, and the Urban Folk Quartet; plus newcomers to the Cromer Pier theatre - Linda Watkins, Martin Harley, Ninebarrow and the Redhills. Also making their first appearance at the festival are local acts Alden, Patterson & Dashwood, the Shackleton Trio and Klezmerized!
To close the festival on the Sunday evening is 'the band without whom' there would not be a Folk on The Pier - Fairport Convention. Little did they know when they invented British folk-rock that it would become the inspiration for what has become a very popular and enduring music festival. More information can be sourced at www.folkonthepier.co.uk
