Love Folk Festival – The Atkinson, Southport – 14th + 15th February 2025

It’s that time of year again, as we valiantly battle the icy winds, an apparently never-ending winter and seek shelter, warmth and communal comfort within the hallowed walls of the Atkinson Arts Centre in Southport. Love Folk Festival – operated by Sefton Council and skillfully influenced by our friends over at FATEA Magazine is an annual celebration of traditional, contemporary and alternative folk music; and in 2025, added an infusion of country and soul music thanks to the two fantastic headliners.

The festival is held on the Friday and Saturday closest to Valentine’s Day, which this year conveniently fell on the 14th and 15th February. The festival has cemented itself firmly into the folk calendar and was (until recently) the first festival of the year for North-West folk and roots devotees. The festival is formed of two distinct parts – the main stage in the fantastic studio and an ‘acoustic’ Busk Folk Stage in the theatre bar. The Busk Love Folk stage is free for audiences to enter and showcases up-and-coming acts from across the UK, the level of competition to procure one of the coveted performance slots is exceptionally high, with many hundreds of applications received into the FATEA head-office each year.

Love Folk Festival 2025 artists: Eleanor Dunsdon & Gregor Black, Alex Hart (full-band), Rob Clarke, Simon Howard, Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmon, Lucy & Hazel, Good Habits, Suthering, Veronica Drozdowski, Greenman Rising, Blue Rose Code.

FRIDAY

Love Folk aims to champion one of the acts that performed on the Busk Love Folk stage the year before, by offering them the opening slots on the studio stage – this year that honour fell to Eleanor Dunsdon & Gregor Black and what a year they have had since we saw them last! Not only did they wow the Love Folk audience in 2024 but they did exactly the same by winning Purbeck Rising at the Purbeck Valley Folk Festival, then going on to perform at the West Coast Folk Festival and Celtic Connections – not bad for a duo who admit themselves that they are not very good at naming or even recording tunes!

Friday was headlined by Devon’s Alex Hart who ventured the 302 miles north with a full band, comprised of Adam Sweet (face-melting axeman) , Paddy Blight (bass) and Joe Harris (percussion) for a performance of the highest calibre. Alex’s style falls into the country/Americana genre, with song-writing that is strongly influenced by the music of Chris Stapleton and showcased in her new album VISIONS – arguably her most exciting and anticipated album to date.

Alex may be more well-known in folk circles for her collaborations with critically acclaimed, fellow Janner Seth Lakeman – indeed after 3 headline shows with her band it’s back on the road to tour Lakeman’s 13th album The Granite Way. But this Love Folk headline performance confidently demonstrated what an accomplished singer-songwriter, musician and band-leader Alex is in her own right and will have undoubtedly earned her a new legion of fans in the North West of England.

SATURDAY

Saturday kicked-off with Liverpudlian Rob Clarke who opened the Busk Love Folk stage with a warm and entertaining set, interpersed with dire warnings about the perils of blocking the emergency gangway, then we were back in the studio for Eleanor & Gregor’s second set of the festival.

Back at Busk Love Folk and the audience were greatly entertained by Southport’s own Simon Howard whose vocals and guitar were accompanied with keys and fiddle for an enjoyable debut at Love Folk to an appreciative home crowd. In the studio, the country vibe returned with Naomi Bedford & Paul Simmon and their beautiful appalachian ballads

BUSK LOVE STAND-OUT PERFORMANCE

Back in the theatre bar Lucy & Hazel took to the small stage and wowed the audience with the stand out perfomance of the entire festival. In the strongest of folk traditons – humour, relevance, protest and solidarity took centre-stage and their all-too brief busk slot flew by. Lucy & Hazel combined superb musicianship, stagecraft and skilled harmonies with their exceptional songwriting – their debut EP What Was Stolen was eagerly snapped up at the merch stand and I won’t be alone in keenly awaiting their next release – definitely ones to watch.

Good Habits had the uneviably task of following on from Lucy & Hazel, but they were more than up to the challenge – I last saw them a few years ago, and I think it’s fair to say that they have really developed as a duo in both their musicianship and stagecraft – a real pleasure to see again and a thoroughly entertaining set. What appeared to be the vast majority of the audience then decamped to the Southport Market foodhall for some much needed sustenance before returning to The Atkinson for the final leg of Love Folk 2025.

Another fine Devonian export – Suthering – took to the studio stage, this is the second time I have seen this superb duo and certainly the first time that I’ve seen them venture this far north. The duo combine stunning harmonies, themes of social justice and selflessly share their intimate and moving songwriting in a way that left the audience deeply affected by their set. There was even the opportunity for some audience participation in the form of some well-timed fist-pumping and avian flapping – which one were you? You can catch Suthering as they continue their ‘Leave a Light On tour – part II’ throughout April.

The final Busk Love Folk act was Brit-School student Veronica Drozdowski. Veronica, a 16-year-old, British born, Polish singer-songwriter performs with the confidence of a seasoned-musician twice her age – an astonishing talent whose perceptive lyrics, voice and acoustic guitar make for an engrossing, soulful performance.

Greenman Rising returned to Love Folk for a second time and gave their all with their trademark driving dance tunes about love, war, murder and betrayal and most definitely got the audience foot-tapping, eyebrow dancing and fully prepped for the headliner.

Glasgow’s Blue Rose Code closed the 2025 edition of the festival with aplomb – I think it’s safe to say that there were not many in the audience who had seen the band before or knew what to expect – including myself, but it’s fair to say that the band and their distinctive Caledonian soul provided a fitting and exceptionally lively ending to the festival. Of particular note was their tune Thirteen Years which calls out political austerity and the obscene desparity between rich and poor in modern day Britain, they may be a soul band, but they also share the common folk denominators of calling-out and protesting against inequality and injustice. “Do you ever ask yourself. Is this the world we want? Is this the world we want to be?” 

And that was it, for another year at least – Love Folk at The Atkinson is a real gem on the small/indoor festival circuit – every musician commented on how welcome they had been made to feel by the staff, volunteers and audiences – such a wonderful and welcome contrast to the dark times that we all currently face, long may the festival continue.

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