Announcing Britain’s finest folk-fuelled seaside summer holiday
The Sidmouth Folk Festival is proud to return in grand style in summer 2022, bringing a joyful feast of music, song and dance back to the beautiful Devon seaside town for the 68th consecutive year.
A top class, eclectic line-up of artists will headline evening shows in the main Ham venue, including England’s most popular folk songstress Kate Rusby, celebrated Scottish singer songwriter Eddi Reader, Devon folk heroes and festival patrons Show of Hands, big, bold Aussie-based harmony singers The Spooky Men’s Chorale, fiddle and melodeon giants Spiers and Boden, Canadian roots trio The East Pointers, rocking Quebecois outfit Yves Lambert Trio, plus young guns Granny’s Attic with outstanding British singer songwriter Jez Lowe.
Two heavyweight pre-festival concerts with folk legends Steeleye Span (Thursday, July 28, evening) and Cornwall’s inimitable buoy band Fisherman’s Friends (the afternoon of Friday, July 29) are set to warm up both the stage and the town for the fun and games to come.
Regular festival-goers will be thrilled to see the return of the Bulverton at the top of the town, the high energy hub for ceilidhs, dynamic evening roots shows, eating, drinking, after-hours fun and relaxation. Highlights include Scottish funk dub folksters Peatbog Faeries, plus ska and squeezebox maestros Edward II, forthright young balladeer Grace Petrie and grooving European-style folk arrangements from Sheelanagig.
In 2020 the festival hastily switched to an online programme, then trod cautiously last year with a scaled-back, outdoors and online-only celebration. The 2022 Sidmouth Folk Festival promises to be firing on all cylinders with hundreds of individual events, and organisers are strongly committed to keeping everyone safe and comfortable, with well-ventilated venues, plenty of fresh air activities and a flexible attitude to accommodate any current Covid guidance.
The wide-reaching workshops programme will offer festival-goers incredible opportunities to learn or improve their craft, from choral singing to fiddle playing, with highly experienced teachers and professional music makers and dance leaders. Also back for 2022 will be the highly popular Children’s Festival, the Youth Festival, Morris Dance Displays and dance sessions in Blackmore Gardens.
Founded in 1955, Sidmouth Folk Festival is a national treasure of the music world, a week-long celebration that permeates virtually every nook and cranny of the elegant Regency town, from the seafront and shopping streets to venues large and small. Championing traditional folk music and dance over the decades, it’s also well known and loved as the place at the cutting edge of the genre, where new generations of musicians find their feet and hone their skills, often starting as buskers on the beach.
Sidmouth blends a friendly, summer holiday atmosphere with top class entertainment, fun-fuelled activities for all ages, lashings of party spirit and a myriad of opportunities to roll up your sleeves and join in. Take your pick from the major concerts, lively late-night roots parties, intimate sessions, ceilidhs and folk dancing, storytelling, family entertainment and youth-centred sessions, hands-on workshops and spectacular dance displays, the best in South West crafts and the tastiest local food and drink.
You can stay for a day or stay all week. Pitch up close to the action at the official festival campsite, dip in and out of town for specific concerts, workshops and dances, or simply soak up the party atmosphere over a pint or two overlooking the sea on the Esplanade
The Sidmouth Folk Festival 2022 – July 29 to August 5, 2022
Tickets for all individual headline shows, as well as all-singing, all-dancing, all-week and weekend season tickets, are on sale now from sidmouthfolkfestival.co.uk.
