PREVIEW: The Great British Folk Festival 2018

PREVIEW: The Great British Folk Festival 2018

When: 30th November – 3rd December 2018
Where: Butlins Skegness, Lincolnshire, England

As 2018 draws to a close one of the last events on the annual UK music festival calendar hoves into view. In a fortnight’s time, the Great British Folk Festival will return for its seventh consecutive year to its customary location at the Butlins Holiday Resort just outside the east Lincolnshire seaside town of Skegness.

And once more the Great British Folk Festival has put together a truly excellent line-up drawn from the world of British folk music. In keeping with previous years, it has again blended the old with the new. At the more established end of this spectrum are the headline acts which this year include those Tyneside folk-rock pioneers, Lindisfarne – returning to the scene of their triumphant performance here two years ago – legendary singer-songwriter Ralph McTell who in 2018 is celebrating 50 years on the road, John Boden & the Remnant Kings , perennial festival favourites the Oysterband and the 8-piece Cornish singing group, Fisherman’s Friends.

The Great British Folk Festival also promotes emerging artists and it has again invited back the winners of the previous year’s Introducing Stage competition (in this instance, acts who had appeared on this stage in 2017 and had been voted for by the paying guests). The three winners in question were the Suffolk folk and roots duo, Honey and the Bear, comprising singer-songwriters and multi-instrumentalists Jon Hart and Lucy Sampson; the York folk-rock musician Joshua Burnell; and Salutation, a young local folk band from Lincolnshire.

Other great acts that will appear on this year’s bill include those rowdy folk-punk rockers and former John Peel favourites The Men They Couldn’t Hang, experimental folk trio Lau, the Irish gypsy-folk quintet The Eskies, and the truly iconic singer-songwriter Julie Felix.

Not only will guests have the choice of four live music venues – featuring more than 35 acts over the course of the weekend – they will also be able to enjoy three nights’ accommodation in warm, relaxing surroundings and have access to all of the site’s bars, dining facilities, 20m pool, fitness suite, sauna, steam room, cinema, ten pin bowling and various amusements.  

Full details on this year’s Great British Folk Festival and how to get tickets for it can be found HERE

And to get you right in the mood for this year’s event here are some photos from the Great British Folk Festival 2017

God is in the TV is an online music and culture fanzine founded in Cardiff by the editor Bill Cummings in 2003. GIITTV Bill has developed the site with the aid of a team of sub-editors and writers from across Britain, covering a wide range of music from unsigned and independent artists to major releases.