FOLK HEROES: THE CAMBRIDGE FOLK FESTIVAL

Take it to the 'Bridge: Grammy-award-winning Fantastic Negrito at the 2024 Cambridge Folk Festival

​Cambridge Folk Festival, 2024 
report by Hazel Davis

It’s been a good few years since we trundled down the M1 for Cambridge Folk Festival and my adorable Boden-dungareed toddlers have morphed into sullen (well a tiny bit) teens with phones and pouts. During that time as a family we’ve tested out a range of festivals, some designed for children, some designed-exclusively-for-posh-people-but-we-had-to-keep-going-back-because-the-kids-made-friends. Along the way there’s been something missing. Just good music made by people who love music. 

Some of my favourite memories have been at Cambridge. Dancing backstage with the Unthanks, drinking hot chocolate with a toddler to KT Tunstall, watching a brand-new, unheard-of Laura Marling open the Thursday night to a handful of people while it bucketed down outside. So it was so a bit glorious to come back and show the girls what they’d been missing all these years. 

And it didn’t disappoint. For a start Robert Freaking Plant was headlining Whether you like his new Americana, blues folk vibe or not (and I do), it’s Robert Freaking Plant. He was, of course, sublime, doing nothing to dispel the notion that he’s the nicest man in music, being ever-so-humble that vocalist Suzi Dian was willing to sing with him (while she probably wakes up every morning mouthing “Robert Freaking Plant”). 

I was particularly excited about seeing Ríoghnach Connolly, someone whose live events I’ve followed for years and who’s become something of a Manchester legend. She was there with one of her bands Honeyfeet (or “The Honeyfleet” as the announcer insisted on calling them). What are they? Um….folk, trad, funk, jazz, erm. I don’t know but they’re brilliant and if you don’t know them you immediately must. At the end of a long, hot day on site, Connolly apparated on stage, complete with wind machine and jazz flute. “Let’s get weird,” she smirked, before launching into a song about cannibalism. I was soooo here for it, as were the three teenage lads next to me who hadn’t heard of her but were utterly transfixed for the entire jaw-dropping set. 

Other highlights include Grammy-award-winning Fantastic Negrito, who blew the crowd away in his gold jacket (actually the least impressive thing about him), Nitin Sawhney (who my oldest daughter declared the greatest thing she’d ever seen) and Hack-Poets Guild, featuring Marry Waterson and Lisa Knapp, for whom my partner got suspiciously close to the front, despite usually claiming to be too tall for that. I also managed to take part – not entirely unsuccessfully – in the campsite open-mic with my pal Neil, who was also there for the weekend.

​The best thing was that we could just sit and read our books while music floated around us. There was no rushing to be at X stage by X time or crowding into catch Beyonce (she wasn’t there). It was all very laid-back and about the sounds. The gorgeous Katherine Priddy delivered a note–perfect Sunday set that was the perfect mellow way to wind down a glorious weekend. 

Cambridge is a really lovely festival. If you’re not a folk fan, then most of the people I’ve mentioned above fall into other categories anyway so dispel the notion that it’s all finger-in-ear stuff. It’s not. Sure, Peggy Seeger was there, of course, and, sure, you could pick up a reasonably-priced lute and a flower garland, but if you just like good performers, reasonably priced food and a nice vibe, then it’s one for you. 

https://www.cambridgelive.org.uk/folk-festival