We’re starting to arrive at that time of year when many folk clubs close down for the summer and the festival season takes over, however, there are still quite a few events at the clubs before the summer break really starts to kick in, if you will excuse the terminology as I have clearly been watching too much World Cup football!
I am actually off to Royston Live Folk Club tonight as despite the sweltering weather the John Ward Trio always provide an entertaining evening of music and this is the penultimate session before the club closes in August then opens up again in late September with Thursday’s Band providing the music for a concert which is part of Royston Arts Festival.
The Bishop’s Stortford Acoustic Club is one of those going through the summer without a break and their regular nights are usually the second and last Thursdays in the month and tonight they have a double headline showcase with M G Boulter and Paul Ambrose plus Fourgone Confusion. Also, over in that direction of our region is Vikki Clayton appearing at St Andrew’s Church, Hertford on Thursday 2nd July. You can find all the above listed in the Unicorn Diary in the Listings on the front page of the main Unicorn Folk website.
A little further afield there is a new club launching at The Red Lion in Manningtree on Friday 26 June 2026, the Many Trees Folk & Dance Club starting with a guided dance followed by a social dance session. Later in the year the club hope to start booking folk artists for concerts. Links to their website are in Featured Events where you can also find a host of other events going on around the region, some of them with FREE entry including one this coming Sunday 28th June – an afternoon of music, song and dance presented by the East Anglian Traditional Music Trust at Long Melford Memorial Hall in Suffolk.
Turning now to festivals there are two excellent one day festivals coming soon in our region, the first of which is Bury Folk Festival on Saturday 27th June featuring some really good artists including … well, actually there are a lot of good artists appearing so have a look yourself using the link in the Festival Finder in the Listings on the front page of the main Unicorn Folk website. Much the same can be said of Kimpton Folk Festival the following Saturday 4th July and a link can also be found in the Festival Finder and the following weekend the 40th Ely Folk Festival will take place. More on that next time but you can find details using the link in the Featured Events section.
If dance is more your scene then new dates have been added to the Dance Diary in the Listings to include Peterborough Morris who will be dancing at the aforementioned Ely Folk Festival along with a lot of other Morris sides at various times throughout.
Finally, Filby’s Folk is back with Show 118 featuring yet another host of new music from a variety of talented artists some of whose albums have already reached the UK Folk Album Charts and others are sure to follow the same path. Be in the know and listen to them first on Filby’s Folk – just click on ‘Podcasts’ on the main top menu.
Enjoy the football!