Beardy Folk Festival’s magnificent seventh.

Shropshire festival goes from strength to strength, but things far from rosy on the independent festival scene

Source: BBC News

“Rising costs are leaving music festivals across the UK and Republic of Ireland struggling to survive, organisers have said. At least 42 festivals in the UK have announced a postponement, cancellation or complete closure in 2024, according to the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF).”

“The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) shared the latest figure as Geronimo, a family festival held in Cheshire, announced the event is “no more”, having become an “unsustainable financial risk” due to “a huge percentage of festival-goers holding off booking until the last week”.

Source: Sky News

The UK’s small and independent music festival scene, renowned for its eclectic offerings and grassroots appeal, is facing a myriad of difficulties and challenges. These festivals; which often provide a platform for emerging, independent artists and foster a vital sense of community, are struggling to maintain their foothold in an increasingly competitive and financially strained environment. One of the most pressing challenges are the escalating costs associated with hosting a festival. Small festivals, in particular, are heavily burdened by rising expenses, including licensing fees, staffing, insurance, and logistical costs such as staging, sound, and lighting equipment. This often forces small festivals to operate on razor-thin margins, making them highly vulnerable to financial instability.

The dominance of large, corporate-backed festivals poses another substantial challenge, exacerbated further by those very same companies who are attempting to buy the rights to small and medium festivals across the UK – I don’t know about you, but quite frankly I see little appeal in corporate festivals, where your trade stalls, food and drink are low-quality, high profit margin, identikit offerings that provide no benefit to local producers and communities and your musical offerings are heavily controlled by the priorities of the record labels.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left an indelible mark on the festival industry, with small and independent festivals being hit the hardest. Most cancelled events, leading to substantial financial losses, the subsequent recovery process has been slow and fraught with uncertainty.

For those few; like Beardy who quite frankly worked miracles – researching, studying, innovating and liaising with the relevant authorities to implement Covid-safe festivals in 2020 and 2021 – have been effectively punished by being deemed ineligible for pandemic funding – as they had successfully hosted limited festivals during the pandemic and therefore were unable to demonstrate hardship to the satisfaction of the grant providers, despite the huge great personal risk borne by their organisers.

Beardy may have successfully hurdled the risky five-year threshold, which is often seen as a virtual barrier to a new festival becoming viable, but it has a few more years to get under it’s belt before it can truly be seen as established – 2024 has shown us all too vividly how precarious the independent festival scene is right now, with both Towersey and Underneath The Stars announcing that this will be their final year.

Let this serve as a reminder to us all that we must ‘use it or lose it’, ensure we buy tickets early and allow these vital, cultural assets to continue and flourish.

Beardy Folk Festival is held annually at Hopton Court; a rather fine location, more accustomed to hosting weddings within it’s walled garden, orangery and woodland. The two main stages are housed at opposing ends of the walled garden, the acoustic stage most definitely upgraded this year within it’s own, amply sized marquee which doubled as a lifeboat (more on that later) and the large main stage – which can comfortably accommodate the larger bands with ease. Performance spaces are also situated within the Orangery (which smells incredible thanks to its large climbing jasmine) a pallet stage for plucky, have-a-go types and the small but perfectly formed woodland.

2024’s festival was opened on a rather chilly and blustery Thursday evening by Blair Dunlop on the main stage, followed by Sean Taylor in the acoustic marquee – I particularly enjoyed Sean’s set, his musicality and keen observations, he will definitely be one for me to watch again. Thursday night was headlined by Alex Hart and her band, Alex had appeared at Beardy in 2023 as part of Seth Lakeman’s folk powerhouse ensemble, and made such a great impression that she was asked to come back to perform her own catalogue – described by Mark Radcliffe as the ‘Stevie Nicks of folk’ and having collaborated with Terry Britten and Martin Barre, it is unsurprising that The Guardian have stated that “Alex Hart is set to make a global impact.”

FRIDAY

Friday and the first full day of Beardy 2024 started off calmly enough, there was even a bit of unexpected sunshine, which was gratefully welcomed by the festival goers who had been mentally preparing for the forecasted 48 hours of storms. Unfortunately the Friday headliner The Magic Numbers had to pull out due to a serious health issue for Michele Stodart (The Magic Numbers should be appearing at Beardy 2025), cue the festival organiser having the unenviable task of finding both a headliner and an acoustic slot with just 48 hours notice. But cometh the hour, cometh the Scottish to save the day – good friend of Beardy Gary Stewart filled the acoustic vacancy; and was given a thoroughly well-deserved standing ovation, and the headline was more than capably filled by acid-croft, hypno-folkadelic, ambient trad band Shooglenifty.

Also performing on Friday were folk-Americana trio The Lost Trades, beautiful harmonies formed in lockdown by The Deep Blue, a triumphant return to the main stage by Mishra, and a superb, confident debut by the Gentlemen of Few. All was going swimmingly (ahem) until 3 Daft Monkeys took to the main stage – and to be far their first three tracks were going brilliantly too – until a rather ominous looking storm cloud rapidly formed overheard, to be followed by a lighting bolt that struck the ground a couple of miles to the right of the main stage.

You only really know how well organised an event is when things go wrong, and Beardy faced some significant tests this year – having already lost a headline band, indecision could have resulted in losing half the audience too – but the actions taken were rapid and decisive. An immediate show hold was declared and the audience were ushered to take cover – the bulk of us sheltering in the acoustic marquee and a storm of biblical proportions battered the canvas from overhead – initially those who sought shelter in the beer tent were probably feeling quite smug about their choice, but as the minutes turned into an hour, their bladders may well have been less appreciative.

The storm showed little sign of moving for a significant period of time, 3 Daft Monkeys took shelter in their van and their set had to be abandoned (they too should be back at Beardy 2025 – for what will hopefully be a slightly less electrifying set). In the acoustic marquee we grimly marvelled at a couple of festival goers who decided to wander around outside under a large golf umbrella – but miraculously they somehow survived. But it is during times like these of relative adversity that beautiful moments come organically to fruition, Jess Silk – who was due to perform after the 3 Daft Monkeys, picked up her guitar and sat on the edge of the stage and led a very memorable singalong with the audience, but what could be sung at a time like this? well it had to be ‘What a beautiful day’ and ‘Why does it always rain on me?’.

As it turned out, the land around Hopton Court is remarkably resilient and although straw had to be deployed at various locations – the ground held up incredibly well. A few tents did perish, but the festival came through largely unscathed. Impressively a tractor was also quickly provided to assist anyone who needed assistance to escape from the campsite.

SATURDAY

Saturday could not have been more different to Friday – the sun was out, it was warm and the worst of the weather had most definitely passed. Michell, Pfeiffer and Kulesh (always remember the comma!) opened the acoustic stage and somehow managed to keep their outfits immaculate even though most of us were now sporting knee-deep, mud splattered boots and trousers. Kitewing opened on the main stage and where another notable discovery for me, formed of The Shackleton Trio and Christina Alden & Alex Patterson, they were simply superb, playing songs of the sea, migration and environmental struggle.

Already feeling spoiled at finding some more new music to enjoy, the gifts just kept on coming. First in the form of Isembard’s Wheel, who gave a great performance in the acoustic marquee which I thoroughly enjoyed (another one for the ‘Must See Again’ list) and then Nati returned to Beardy following her triumphant solo set at Beardy 2023 and Love Folk 2024. This was a very different performance as she was accompanied by her band on the main stage and demonstrated her great breadth of musical talent – her Beardy 2023 set had been traditional, intimate, captivating, funny and moving, her 2024 set showed that she was equally capable of holding the audiences attention on a large stage, playing both pop and rock styles – I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Nati makes a real, global breakthrough in the coming years as she really is the complete package – not only having a genuine musical talent but also possessing the charisma and stage presence required to become successful touring musician.

Back in the acoustic marquee, Jack Rutter gave an absolute masterclass in solo performances, he really is a class act and I am always very happy to watch him perform. Kate Rusby made her Beardy debut on the main stage, she looked absolutely frozen and some rather magnificent mittens were deployed as the set developed – but this did not detract from what was a real benchmark of quality for a headline act. Beardy favourite Mik Artistik does what only Mik Artistik can do in the acoustic marquee before the party was well and truly started in the main stage with festival favourites and ultimate party band Mad Dog McCrea.

SUNDAY

Sunday and the final day of Beardy 2024 was all too soon upon us – the ground was still holding up amazingly well, but the third and final impressive piece of planning/disaster management was unveiled. Campers in the main field could face a tricky exit from the sloping field – but Beardy had all this in hand, not only had the leave time on Monday been extended by an impressive four hours, they also had the tractor on site to assist any bogged down vehicles but it was also decided that the bar would remain open too!

Sunday also featured a rather large coup – that is the appearance of Whispering Bob Harris, we can only assume that festival friend Mark Radcliffe had assured Bob that this really is a fine festival and not to be missed. Bob appeared in the acoustic marquee for ‘An audience with’ style appearance, accompanied by his good friend Martin Stephenson, who covered a variety of topics from Nashville, time travel and the merits of golf courses.

Sunday was far from done and still had plenty of treats in store, firstly Tim Edey. Is there a more joyful sight and sound than Tim Edey in full flow? just think what an wonderful place the world would be with a few more Tim Edey’s roaming free…I’ll leave that random thought with you.

Another highlight of the festival was the debut/non-debut of Virginia Kettle, Virginia is no stranger to Beardy having performed three times previously with that quiet, little heard of Wigan ensemble called Merry Hell. But this was her first appearance with her Rolling Folk. The acoustic marquee was noticeably busy for this performance and there was even some spontaneous dancing in the aisles, the set also included Virginia’s Muddy Choir who had been formed during a singing workshop in the woodland earlier in the day, this was a particularly heart-warming moment and really reinforced the importance of the smaller, independent festivals where this kind of creative collaboration is possible.

Stick in the Wheel closed the acoustic marquee, with their trademark spoken word, folk and dry wit, which was thoroughly appreciated by the audience, before Beardy 2024 came to a celebratory conclusion on the main stage with glittery, bicorn, pirate party antics from the evergreen Blackbeard’s Tea Party.

Beardy Folk Festival is well worth a visit, even as a day ticket holder – especially if the images from the likes of Reading, Download or Glastonbury fill you with horror – there’s a real eclectic programme of music and activities, although overwhelmingly folk, there are also often electronic, rock, pop and world music bands performing – so there really is something for everyone and you will always discover great new music. The food and drink stalls are independent and often highly local in origin. Beardy boasts an incredible location, generous camping plots, glamping, free showers and clean toilets – making for a very civilised festival experience.

These fantastic small, independent festivals are passionate about what they do and offer something truly special, but they can only continue to do so with your support – and although Beardy’s future looks bright it’s important that we don’t become complacent – festivals like this will only continue for as long as they are wanted…we don’t want these special events to continue to disappear at their current rate…we would all be the poorer for it.

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