Summer is well and truly here and that means one thing – Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2025 is just around the corner. We continue our preview of the treats in store when that magical weekend of 7th-9th August finally arrives.

ONE OF THE GREAT BRITISH FESTIVALS

The festival has been taking place for the best part of 50 years. We hope that there are many years of life left in the old girl yet. One thing’s for certain, as long as there is a Cropredy Festival, At The Barrier will be there to absorb, report and – most importantly, enjoy the event. It’s a musical highlight of the year.

At The Barrier are huge supporters of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention. We believe that the annual event is one of the great British festivals, if not a British Institution. To get a flavour of the festival, check out our reasons why it is one of the best here.

2025 IS A SELL OUT

With the constraints of the world being felt, the UK festival industry is finding life tough. The expenses involved in organising and running a festival are vast. Many festivals have sadly folded or opted to take a fallow year. The Fairport Convention team have had the foresight to continue the Cropredy festival by prudent management and planning. It will still provide the full Cropredy experience with the pleasing result that 2025 has already sold out.

In our third preview of the musical delights on offer, we take a look at Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble, Richard Digance, Skipinnish and Urban Folk Quartet.

JOE BROUGHTON’S CONSERVATOIRE FOLK ENSEMBLE

They’re no strangers to the Cropredy stage, and, when Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble arrive in town, everyone knows they’re here. My mind drifts back to August 2014, when the massed ranks of this spectacular ensemble crammed onto the stage for their debut appearance – I’d never seen so many musicians wedged into such a small space. And the sound they created – WOW!

They’ve been back since, of course – notably to join Fairport Acoustic in a breathtaking version of Danny Jack’s Reward (Expensive Version) and they’ll be supplementing Fairport Acoustic again this year for what we’re promised will be an “incredible” version of The Lark Medley. There will be over 50 musicians on the Cropredy stage by that point. I hope that the designers have got their calculations right!

It’s not just a guest appearance that Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble are lined up for either – they’ll be following Fairport Acoustic onto the stage on Thursday afternoon for their own billed spot. With a line-up of around 50 musicians that includes 15 horns, 4 cellos, 6 percussionists. 3 electric guitarists, plus a huge selection of fiddles, flutes, clarinets, melodicas, acoustic guitars and an electric bass and an accordion the advice is: Make sure that wig is firmly attached to your head – there’s going to be quite a breeze blowing.

Oh – and they sing too.

If ever there was a reason to make sure that you get to Cropredy early for the Thursday afternoon start-up, this it it. Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble is an audio-spectacular that isn’t to be missed!

SKIPINNISH (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)

A first appearance for this Scottish band, astonishingly, they having graced the stage of just about every other equivalent festival over the years. Originally from the tiny Hebridean island of Tiree, their forte is a hefty version of neo-traditional music and song, as anything up to three sets of pipes form an extravagant wall of sound, embellished by accordion and fiddle, with a dense bottom line of guitar, keys, bass and drums. If you don’t love bagpipes, worry not, you will soon realise your foolishness, embracing the curdling skirl to your heart, like a long lost limb, needed for the jigs you will find yourself enjoying. 

Anyone’s guess as to how many of them we’ll get on the day, with a fluid line-up based around the core of Andrew MacPhail and Andrew Stevenson, accordion and pipes 

respectively, with Norrie MacIver on vocals, a relative newcomer of 9 years standing. Whether you know the songs or not, you’ll be singing, that much is true, especially as they likely wind up with Walking On The Waves, as infectious a song you’ll find this side of Scarinish, Tiree’s main settlement, pop. 123. (You may even remember the song, as is “shared” by Tide Lines, who played Cropredy in 2019, and whose singer was originally the same for Skippinish.) 

RICHARD DIGANCE (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)

One of the traditions of Cropredy is the appearance of Richard Digance to kick start, or gently nudge, the final day of the festival into life. His unavailability in 2022 when Seth Lakeman did a sterling job in opening Saturday before heading off to another festival, still saw the white hankie waving / Morris dance tradition maintained, even if the music that year was a little more lively than Richard’s usual set of sedate comedic/sobering songs.

Maybe donning the same waistcoat but a different round collared shirt, he’ll be breaking out of semi retirement for a half hour of wake up music selected from his forty odd albums along with a story or two; no doubt selected from his recent topical observations. It’s easy to take Richard for granted but even the most rudimentary glance over his Wiki entry will confirm that the man is something of a legend.

URBAN FOLK QUARTET (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)

You’ll have read about Joe Broughton and his Conservatoire Folk Ensemble. Well, this is his other job, or one of them, his longstanding quartet of himself, his wife, Paloma Trigás, Galician fiddle whizz, percussionist extraordinaire, Tom Chapman, and banjo maestro Dan Walsh. We are fans of all four, individually and collectively.

Yes, they  do play folk: English, Celtic (including Galician) and American, but the Urban aspect is equally apposite, with distinct fumes of a funky casbah or an Indian wedding party seeping in from the sides: Walsh’s Whiplash Reel has him swear it is a sitar in his hands, rather than a humble 5 string. And their exuberant take on Solsbury Hill, yes, that one, will certainly stir up a few memories.  

This is not their first Cropredy, having graced the field in 2011. One fan of the band is Dave Pegg, so much so that he guested on Trie Stories, their 2024 release. It would be a shame were he not to repeat that honour for their Friday evening set. Whatever and whichever, it’ll be a blinder!

Check out our Spotify playlist highlighting the artists playing at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2025 below.

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2025 has officially sold out. There are no official resale channels, but you can keep an eye on the Fairport Facebook group here, or the event page on Twickets, here.

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