I was lucky enough to attend (& play) the inaugural Folkstock Festival this past weekend & what a lovely festival it was too.

Folkstock is an acoustic festival whose proceeds go to the charites Cancer Research UK and the Folkstock Arts Foundation (helping support and develop acoustic artists).

A new boutique festival has no right to be this friendly,this welcoming & this well organised has it? Well Folkstock most certainly was.Stages were managed with military precision yet with a warm & personal touch that was charming.

Set in the beautiful grounds of Alderham Country Park they had 4 stages of music & an assortment of homespun stalls & activities for everyone.

With the music policy being centred around acoustic, folk and roots this always promised to deliver to the heart & soul with a side measure of toe tapping and it really did.I confess to being quite new to the folk scene but its always a great sign when you are surprised at what you find & very pleasantly surprised I was.Artists storming the stages included Lucy Ward,Boho Dancer,Kris Drever & Eamon Coyne,The Willows,Roxanne De Bastion,Marina Florance & Luke Jackson to name a few.

The on/off British weather is what we have come to expect around Festival time (although our recently deceased summer did blooming great this year) and the people of Folkstock took it all in their stride & were some of the happiest,easy going lot its been my pleasure to share a field with.The day left you with a warm glow-relaxed,chilled & charmed-a lovely combination.

I just wanted to write a short blog about a festival that is small in size but big on heart & in doing the work they do in helping new music artists they need to be saluted.Well done to Helen Meissner & everyone involved with Folkstock – hope to see you again next year.

Photography by Redwood Photography

Drawing of me on stage below by artist for the day Peter Farrier

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