Looking ahead to the Gate To Southwell – Kirklington, Southwell, Notts, 2nd thru’ 5th July 2026

EXCITING

It’s all getting a bit exciting, chez Og, having sadly managed to last minute miss this premier roots event last year, with this year’s line-up even more stunning and vibrant than last. Cop an eye on this roster of names, encompassing any definition of roots you might currently use, with folk, country, world and all-sorts, cross-genrifying with verve and vim. Woo hoo!

GATE?

Southwell is a market town in Nottinghamshire, pronounced, don’cha know, as Suh·thl, and the team behind the Gate have been flying this flag, in one form or another since 2007. Initially at the racecourse, the festival moved to its current site around three years back, But the tradition of a Gate, or the Gate, stretches back way further, to 1109, the title referring to a combination holiday and medieval crowdfunder, set up by Archbishop Thomas II of York to raise funds for the building of Southwell Minster, and actually ran, on a yearly basis, until the 1700s. A yearly procession commemorated the handing over of building funds, aka the ‘Southwell pence’. Bet you didn’t know that, nor that it being down to a morris side, Dolphin Morris, to revive it, initially, in 1981, the festival launching 26 years later. (Read more here.)

THE BEST

GTSF is “quite possibly the best small folk and roots festival in the UK“, is their proud boast, and rather than Carlsberg hyperbole, that genuinely is the feel of the faithful punters, who return year on year. It is small, friendly and inclusive. And how many festivals with an upper capacity of 5,000 can attract such top content?

Bill-toppers of the like of Richard Thompson (plus Zara Phillips) and the Proclaimers are assured big draws, but it is in the lower reaches that the real gems are waiting to be unearthed, with an especially strong Scottish component making appearances. Peat & Diesel, Elephant Sessions and Kris Drever are all around to make the Auchtermuchty twins feel more at home. There is also an impressive roster from Canada, one of many presences that may have wistful onetime Cambridge FF attendees feel a tingle of recognition.

DELIGHTS, EXPECTED & OTHERWISE

Elsewhere Steve Knightley will be convening again his Winter Yards Band, with Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage equivalently applying a full band performance. The on-a-roll Rìoghnach Connolly will be appearing, both solo and with The Breath, with Eliza Marshall doing similar, with a solo show and a Ranagri performance on the cards. And so the list goes on, including all manner of unexpected delights; witness The Fugitives, reviewed here so recently, as were Common Culture, plus the new configuration of Blackbeard’s Tea Party and the infectious ongoing party of Black Umfolosi, let alone such instrumental giants as concertina man, Alistair Anderson, and guitarist Chris Cleverley.

DANCIN’ & DRINKIN’

Do you like dancing? Ceilidhs abound, literally, on a nightly basis, with morris sides aplenty to make you second hand thirsty, the latter both within the festival site and spilling over into the surrounding streets. Talking of that thirst, that essential is well catered for, all at unsilly and normal pricing, Food, too, all the expected exotica, festival fare to entice all palates. Too good to be true, with day tickets too, camping and dogs allowed near everywhere. And, yes, there may stil well be some tickets…….

SPOILT FOR CHOICE

With nine (9!) performance areas and a handful of formal stages, that’s a lot of barriers but, be sure, ATB wil be at most of them!

Here’s a teaser and a taster, culled from the last couple of years:

GTSF: Website

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