Cambridge Folk Festival 2019 - Review

It’s Thursday night and there is a man-giraffe leaping around on stage, with electronica blasting across the frenzied audience – this feels more like a rave, than folk, but this is Tuung, returning to a festival where experimentation is the new normal, for a scene often stereotyped as ‘socks and sandals’.

This is the 55th Cambridge Folk Festival, the world’s largest annual festival celebrating all things folk – whose connection to music ‘of the people’ is longstanding, says Tim Mellor, of Black Fen Folk Club. ‘I love the range you find here, from Americana to Blue Grass and traditional folk singing.’

It’s the first time I’ve been since I was a child, back nearly 30 years later, drawn by Nick Mulvey working as Guest Curator this year, whose music I love. He plays a series of secret gigs throughout the festival as well as headlining on Stage 1 on Saturday night, with his curation bringing a range of boundary-pushing acts to the line up including Imarhan (‘dismantling ideas that Western listeners have about Tuereg music’ – Jimmy ‘Trash’ Alexander), Fofoloulah (‘Fofoulah have set sail towards an original sound’ – The Wire) and Folk Award nominees Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita.

‘I’m really happy with how it’s all gone, he tells me, smiling after performing. ‘It’s the first time I’ve curated before, it’s great to bring people I’ve really connected with as a musician.’ Nick grew up in Cambridge, so his working the festival is particularly poignant, seeing family and close friends glowing with pride as he plays to a rapt audience.

‘It’s great he’s chosen acts he has a personal connection with, he’s really helped diversify the programming’, says Alex, of AK Patterson (not to be confused with Alex Patterson of The Orb – ‘yeah, I get that a lot, she laughs), making waves with their dark, fresh edge. ‘We’re not strictly folk, but have played at the festival before. I grew up in the city and live in Brighton now – it’s great coming back for this.’ Appearing as a 2019 Showcase Artist, on Stage 2, theirs are haunting songs, rich in texture and powerful, dark, sometimes exploding into punk, banshee riffs. ‘You have to see us live, to really understand us. We’re quite visual and really influenced by theatre. It’s good to challenge that ‘just stand there and smile thing you sometimes see, as a woman performing, we try to push the boundaries with what we are doing on stage,’ she tells me.

These elements of theatre, of contemporary art are a strong part of the festival – adding a surreal, pop-psychedelia that appeals to old and young alike. We loved Rhubarb Theatre, whose walkabout street theatre warms up arrivals, with hilarious antics, plus the appearance of a giant whale, as a venue near the main stage, for one night only, on Thursday. Their intimate performance for children, inside the whale itself, is unforgettable, following the lives of turtles impacted by plastic in the ocean – inspiring agency on this, too, making a difficult topic magical and inspiring. ‘It’s excellent they are doing something with the space near that space, enthuses one long time festival regular about the whale (a sperm whale, apparently). Oblique Arts’ giant kaleidoscope doodled on by artist Sa’adiah Khaan, plus installations throughout the festival, are a hit, too.

Every morning, we head to the Wake Up Workshops at The Hub, where families and children are treated to singing and hands-on fun with music, with a team whose positive energy, is welcomed by families. We opt for our own ‘wake up’ coffee, from nearby Sessions Café, knowing our son is in good hands. This inclusive spirit for families is a surprising element to the festival. ‘We love The Den, our favourite place in the festival at night – it’s inclusive, kid friendly, really lovely atmosphere,’ one dad enthuses. Camping on site at Cherry Hinton Hall, aside from some rogue recorder playing and really very impressive-but-alarming whistling at 2am – the most disruptive the campsite gets is the odd eruption into hearty ballad singing. After years of blistering bass, the cries of crazed hedonists and rallying chants of ‘bollocks’ at night, at many music festivals – am soothed by it all.

Wildflowers flourishing in The Flower Garden are enhanced by pop up installations, from Oblique Arts. Action on the environment is an undercurrent throughout the festival, with Nick Mulvey appearing with Extinction Rebellion, too. Connecting to nature, ‘the mother’, is a strong theme in his music – asking us to think about what it means to have agency, in this age of the Anthropocene. Connecting to the natural beauty of the festival, became a big part of the weekend for us as a family – paddling with ducklings in the Duck Pond, with beautiful singing, drifting over from The Den, people doing yoga on the grass opposite, making willow butterflies behind us. ‘Bliss!’ a friend laughs, spotting me, reading a book, my toes tipping into the water. She is there celebrating her mother’s 60th birthday at the festival. ‘We’ve been coming here for years, we have the whole family camping in three bell tents this year, another visitor tells us.’

It’s little moments like that, in addition to a strong programme of world class and grassroots acts, that gives the festival it’s enduring appeal for so many. Seeing a woman singing her heart out, with her guitar, surrounded by wildflowers in The Flower Garden, feels profoundly moving. In a world increasingly defined by rampant divide – against each other and the planet – perhaps taking time out to foster genuine human togetherness, inspired creativity and connecting to nature is the new rebellious. ‘Live Simply’.