One of Europe’s best folk festivals returns to Cambridgeshire parkland with around 14,000 people attending across the three and a half days crammed with folk music from around the world. The line-up boasts big names and relative unknowns. There’s unanimous delight expressed from all four stages about playing at this prestigious festival, which continues to do long lasting work in amplifying folk musicianship from the ground up.
Thursday’s openers The Paperboys quickly attract a bursting-at-the-seams crowd at stage 2 with a party soundtrack of everything from bluegrass to Mexican folk, starting the trend of paying effusive thanks to festival organisers and a nod to the many staff and volunteers working hard to make the event happen.
Cambridgeshire-born Aine Deane’s very British wit charms The Den’s acoustic ambience with sweet and funny songs about one particular heartbreak, recruiting the crowd to sing along through wry smiles.
Closing out opening night, Scots-Manx band Mec Lir understand the assignment and bring foot-stomping final-night vibes with their drums-driven folk-rock. You know you’ve hit festival magic already when the band looks like they’re having as good a time as the audience. And we’re only just getting started.
For anyone who accidentally woke up on the right side of the tent on Friday morning and needed reminding that it’s a tough world out there, Bess Atwell’s downbeat set opens Stage 1, in an upgrade from last year’s Den appearance. Now accompanied by a full band, she plays through a set of blissfully melancholic songs including new material from Light Sleeper, her 2024 album produced by Aaron Dessner of the National.
Friday’s stage 2 highlights come in the form of Newfoundland’s Rum Ragged, bringing their high-energy take on traditional Canadian folk and close with the audience gleefully declaring with them the memorable lines ‘we’re dirt poor but we’re not dirtbags’. Next up, Taylor McCall brings blues guitar and some equally blues stories to tell from South Carolina.
Saturday’s Showcase Scotland Expo on stage 3 is to thank for two sets displaying the contrast of styles this festival is so good at holding together. A duo of acoustic guitars and a double bass by the name of Paper Sparrows meander through an enjoyably easy listening set and have no trouble getting the audience joining in some harmonising. Straight after, Ainsley Hamill’s voice soars through a modern take on a gaelic set, accompanied by festival regular Sam Kelly on banjo.
Now we hit the bigtime. The main event. This festival’s favourites, it’s… darlings (sorry). New England’s Darlingside are back in Old England and not only that, they’re now playing a stage 1 slot at the festival which hosted their first ever UK show back in 2016, seeing them return to widespread adoration in 2018. “It feels like coming home” beams Harris Paseltiner into the microphone. The audience beams the same sentiment back to him. The set shows off the best of their four part harmonies across four albums, supported by the hardest working drummer all weekend (in true Darlingside style playing at least three instruments, sometimes all at once).
Violinist Auyon Mukharji’s introductions of each band member by way of their highlights during the preceding week causes a big cheer in support of Paseltiner’s biscuit preference for chocolate covered Hobnobs. We then sway to a song about life, death and the divine. Speaking of sublime, straight after this set Darlingside plays two acoustic songs by the signing tent to an eagerly gathered crowd.
Sunday’s Norwegian Folk Expo introduces us to the sad, funny, spacey sound of Aesvetend, whose song themes span the folk breadth from a tale of graveside contemplation to the sadness of a toothpaste stain.
Stage 2 hosts the firework energy of Lizzie No, whose compelling vocals, incisive lyrics and harp accompaniment make for creative listening. Like so many acts this weekend, she makes a point to sincerely thank the kindness of the festival organisers and crew, and we start to get the picture that this festival’s life-affirming atmosphere is no accident.
In a line-up surprise, Molly Parden from Darlingside plays her own set on Sunday evening’s stage 3, before embarking on a solo three-week tour. Her unassuming delivery lets her quiet songs speak for themselves, with a voice that draws you in all the closer for its delicate control.
Flyte return for a follow-up appearance having opened 2023’s stage 2. In a headline slot on stage 1 they’re accompanied by a big band to play a perfect pop-folk set including an a cappella take on ‘Archie, Marry Me’ and a return of Molly Parden to duet on ‘Tough Love’. There could be no better end to this weekend’s array of music from across the whole spectrum of folk.
The memorable moments are characteristic of what this festival does best, time and time again connecting audiences and musicians, performance replaced by a levelling communion in the music. It’s made the most of by festival organisers who’ve clearly ironed out the kinks of post-pandemic events in order to deliver a near-perfect festival under the Cambridgeshire sun. Let’s do it all again next year, 31 July – 3 August 2025, please.