Cropredy Festival 2025 Preview Part Four: Opinion

By At The Barrier on 21st July 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

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.

Here’s the fourth of our delves into the treats that Fairport’s Cropredy Convention 2025 has to offer.

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 fourth preview of the musical delights on offer, we take a look at Peatbog Faeries, The Deborah Bonham Band and El Pony Pisador.

EL PONY PISADOR (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)

Folk music and humour have always been comfortable partners at Cropredy and so with El Pony Pisador, they come Spanish style. They serve up a tapas of musical flavours including Native Catalan songs and dances , Celtic and Mediterranean tunes, yodelling, Tuvan throat singing, even Georgian polyphony and Balkan polyrhythms . All delivered with masses of energy.

Their European travels have helped them receive a reputation as a highly entertaining festival band with their jolly festive brand of entertainment, their will be much throat wetting at Cropredy and it will be interesting to see how folk react to the throat singing! In their dozen or so years they have released four albums so check out the clip of their Shrewsbury Folk Festival set from 2024 to get a taste of their unique music.

For a little teaser – what is the link between El Pony Pisador, a Ferrari and the Lord Of The Rings. For the answer seek out the atthebarrier gang and if you’re right, there could be a pint!

THE DEBORAH BONHAM BAND (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)

The Deborah Bonham Band, led by the singer-songwriter sister of legendary Led Zep drummer John Bonham seems set to provide this year’s helping of powerhouse blues, rock, and soul. Since launching her first band in the mid nineties, Deborah has earned a reputation for her commanding vocals and vibrant stage presence.

The band’s most recent studio project, Bonham‑Bullick, is a passionate reinterpretation of classic and contemporary songs spanning seven decades. Produced by Deborah and featuring her longtime guitarist and partner Peter Bullick, the release will see them touring the UK and US through 2025 and beyond, with the stop off at Cropredy maybe attracting a few more new fans to their headline shows.

What are the chances of one of Deborah’s other Black Country pals joining her on the Cropredy stage? Planty’s tour plans seem to be on hold at the moment so maybe if Peggy has his number, of course he’s always welcome at Cropredy.

PEATBOG FAERIES (SPOTIFY / APPLE MUSIC)

Peatbog Faeries come from Skye, that being, almost, as much as you need to know. But, once they lock into their multi-faceted groove, you want to know more. This will be their second appearance, after an unusually timed early afternoon Saturday set in 2013; normally the Peatbogs close festival bills, their high octane fusion guaranteed to raise any roof, or certainly to smudge the sky if not. Only the very brave or very good can follow them (and luckily Albert Lee is both!)

With an ever-evolving line-up, the two constants are Peter Morrison, on bagpipes and whistles, and bassist Innes Hutton, arguably his role of equal importance in a band where rhythm is the key and the core. Add in fiddle, sometimes two, keyboards, guitars, sometimes two and powerhouse drums, and this is a ceilidh like no other. But fiddle-dee-dee it really isn’t, their tunes anthemic and exhilarating, bringing in textures and flavours from afar. The township style guitar play of Tom Salter adds in some afro jive and some creeping electronica is increasingly sneaking into the mix. Here’s what we thought of their most recent album.

Pàrtaidh air adhart, dude, as they possibly don’t say in Portree!

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.