Fairport’s Cropredy Convention is one of the best festivals on the circuit and has been going strong since 1979. It prides itself on great music, a devoted fanbase and being one of, if not the, friendliest festival around.

This years line up will take the stage between Thursday August 13th and Saturday August 15th 2020 and sees several returning acts, a host of debutantes, as well as the usual appearances from Fairport Convention.

Multi-award winning Trevor Horn returns with his band and an arsenal of great pop songs. The Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican bring their cheeky humour back to the fields and Martyn Joseph returns to serenade the crowd with his amazingly crafted songs. Steve Hackett also makes a return with his Genesis Revisited set (which we reviewed this week); Edward II, Home Service and Cropredy stalwart, Richard Digance, also return.

First timers include Turin Brakes, The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Rosalie Cunningham and Sharon Shannon. Another of the newcomers is the legendary Clannad. The Thumping Tommys, Holy Moly & The Crackers, Emily Barker and the BBC 2 Radio Young Folk Musician of the Year, Maddie Morris.

As ever, there is the alumni that help make up the set. Iain Matthews returns with his Matthews Southern Comfort act and the immortal Richard Thompson will play a solo set…that is always an absolute treat! In addition to his solo set, he will be playing with Fairport Convention who will be playing their 1970 album, Full House, in its entirety with the album line up including Dave Mattacks.

Fairport Convention will no doubt impart plenty of standards and newbies in their customary closing set as the sun sets over this great festival in Oxfordshire.

We’re really pleased with this year’s line-up. It consolidates Cropredy’s core appeal, celebrates Fairport’s rich heritage and also introduces a wide and diverse range of music. It’ll be a particular pleasure to have Richard Thompson playing with us again during our three-hour headline set on the Saturday evening.

Dave Pegg (Fairport Convention bassist) on this years festival

The festival takes place from 13th August to 15th August.

This year the festival is introducing a new ‘tiered’ system of ticketing. That means the sooner you buy, the more you’ll save.

Tier One will go on sale at our early bird price, from 10.00 on Monday 2nd December 2019. When all the Tier One tickets have been sold, it will move on to Tier Two and so on up to Tier Four. Two-day tickets (Friday and Saturday) and Saturday-only tickets will go on sale from 2 February 2020.

As usual, the first 1,000 three-day ticket orders will receive a beautiful Christmas card individually signed by Fairport Convention; additionally, the first 2,000 orders will receive a souvenir Cropredy windscreen sticker.

The festival is staying true to its family values by offering teen tickets in 2020. For 2020 youngsters between the ages of 12 and 17 (inclusive) will pay just £75 for three days regardless of which Tier we are on, a great saving for families. Under 12s are still free. It really is superb value.

Check out a clip from 2018 of the band playing their folk rock classic, Matty Groves, with the late Maartin Allcock.

Fairport Convention: Official Website / Facebook / Twitter