Its that time of year when we head down the M6 to Nuneaton, for Ragged Bear, the liveliest of indoor festivals

The 2024 Ragged Bear Festival in Nuneaton brings together folk and rock enthusiasts for a vibrant and growing indoor festival. The brainchild of Greenman Rising’s Steve Bentley, the festival is held at the town’s popular Queen’s Hall, and has grown in reputation, drawing in both loyal fans and newcomers who relish its eclectic lineup and warm community vibe. This year’s edition lived up to expectations, offering an exciting blend of established acts and emerging talent.

Raucous folk-punk, pirate energy was the flavour of the day, not so much the beardy; finger-in-ear, trad here – which wonderfully sets this small festival apart from many of it’s counterparts, it also has the added benefit of being held on the same weekend each year – when the clocks go back, so there is valuable extra time for any over indulgences to wear off before returning to the drudgery of the 9-5.

Bands like Merry Hell, Blackbeard’s Tea Party and 3 Daft Monkeys played the main, Queen’s Hall stage with electrifying performances that left the audience cheering and pogoing all day long, while more intimate sets from lesser-known artists were showcased in The Crew bar on the ground floor, but lesser known certainly did not equate to less popular – throughout the day it was actually difficult to get into The Crew, such was the size of the audience – this peaked (as you would expect) during Jess Silk’s fantastic solo set.

Saturday opened with a depleted, but beautifully earthy sounding Greenman Rising, the ladies who were otherwise engaged, left the new boyband to get the festival off to a fine start.

One the things that I really love about these small, musician organised festivals is that you will always discover a new band that you want to see again. At Ragged Bear 2024 this new discovery came in the form of a late replacement; Lauren South was unable to perform, The Kahunas stepped into the breach and immediately gained a new army of followers with their self-proclaimed durgy, underground, urban folk music.

Their set seemed to finish all too quickly, such was the exciting and mesmerisingly unique nature of their music, that took the audience on a sonic adventure to pastures new. Their music pulled the audience in with unexpected rhythms, fresh textures and melodies that lingered long after the final song ended – it’s not often that you hear about the ketamine kid and their chicken dancing – but what a great way to finish such an exciting set.

How do you follow that? well with the first foray onto the high seas of course, with Brian Stone and the Masters of None – who returned to Ragged Bear for the first time since 2022, for some hi-jinx, audience participation and pirate-esque shanties.

The legendary Phil ‘Swill’ Odgers took to the stage following a brief intermission, and delighted the audience with his trademark punk/protest/folk music and a special rendition of the Ghost Of Cable Street.

Fine Lines made their debut at Ragged Bear and played their country rock to an impressed Nuneaton crowd, this was one of the quieter sets of the day and was the first time I’d seen Fine Lines since Mark Radcliffe and Zoe Blythe have stepped away from the live performances, but it is testament to the quality of the songs and the musicianship of the remaining members that the band continues to be a superb live Americana outfit. The Leylines followed with some great high energy, folk rock that definitely felt defiant and edgy with hints of Green Day in their songwriting.

The Lagan made a welcome return and rocked the Queen’s Hall into the early evening and shifted the vibe most definitely, with their unapologetically raucous, Celtic punk. Swiftly followed by 3 Daft Monkeys – who appear to have been a meteorological jinx in 2024, most significantly at Beardy Folk Festival where their music heralded the arrival of an apocalyptic storm that threatened to wipe out a significant proportion of the festival goers. No such jinx though at Nuneaton , which was pleasantly warm and dry all day, and especially warm in the Queen’s Hall, boosted by some impressive advance ticket sales that meant this was the cosiest and sweatiest Ragged to date.

As we headed towards the end of the evening, Blackbeard’s Tea Party took to the main stage – with their trademark pirate rock, juxtaposed with a splash of glam and choreography. That’s not to say that there’s nothing serious about this band, they may not take themselves too seriously, but their music and performance is first rate, and they don’t shy away from serious subjects either – especially in the track I Am People, which lead singer Stuart Giddens explains is about his anger at politicians who claim that ‘the people are over it’ when responding to the justified grievances around Partygate.

After a solid 11 hours of incredible music, we reached the final performance of the night – from the all-conquering, Wiganese, folk-rock troubadours Merry Hell.

Merry Hell don’t do tours, Merry Hell are a permanent touring machine – this was their second appearance at Ragged Bear and it was clear from the audience that their inclusion was a big draw for what appeared to be Ragged’s largest crowd to date.

They didn’t hang about either, they rattled through an impressive 14 song setlist, which included music from the length and breadth of their back catalogue, and newer works such as Lee Goulding’s Only Love and Bob Kettle’s Army of Vagabonds now firmly cemented in Merry Hell’s live perfomances.

The festival drew to a close gone midnight, the audience having managed to survive Bury Me Naked despite the presence of a significant sway hazard and impressively some came prepared with tea cups to raise during Bob Kettle’s anthemic Come On England.

There are already some big names being finalised for the 2025 festival, which promises to be the biggest and best Ragged yet, see you at the barrier!

Ragged Bear returns on the 24 and 25 October 2025 with tickets available via the Ragged Bear website.

Ragged Bear online: Website / Facebook

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