Cambridge Folk Festival Article Index for
Cambridge
Website Links For
Cambridge
 

Information About

Cambridge Folk Festival





HISTORY


In autumn 1964 Cambridge City Council, England , decided to hold a music festival the next summer and asked Ken Woollard , a local firefighter and socialist political activist, to help organise it. Ken had been inspired by a documentary, Jazz On A Summer’s Day , about the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival . The first Festival sold 1400 tickets and almost broke even. Squeezed in as a late addition to the bill was a young Paul Simon who had just released I Am A Rock. The festival's popularity quickly grew. Ken continued as Festival organiser and artistic director up until his death in 1993. It is now run by Cambridge City Council Arts & Entertainments, together with over two hundred event staff who know and love the Festival.


CURRENT STRUCTURE


Most artists perform more than once over the weekend on the different stages: Stage 1, within a large marquee in front of the main Festival arena, the Stage 2, a smaller marquee and the Club Tent, hosted on the Festival’s behalf by five local folk clubs. There, in addition to invited artists, members of the audience including some well known names get up and perform.


ARTISTS


It is often said that the main "folk" aspect of the festival is the audience, not the performers. As well as the more obvious folk singers, recent festivals have seen performances from , Kate Rusby , Beth Orton , Martin Simpson , Eliza Carthy , Joan Baez and many others.


EXTERNAL LINKS


  • http://www.cambridge.gov.uk/ff/index.html - official web page.

  • The Line Of Best Fit In-depth coverage from the 2007 festival.

  • http://www.fatea-records.co.uk/cambrid - In depth coverage of past and current festival

  • Acoustic Magazine The UK's only dedicated Acoustic magazine