UK: Manchester Folk Festival, a new annual festival celebrating the best of English folk and acoustic roots music, has announced its full programme, set to take place from October 19 – 22 at venues across Manchester.
Presenting familiar names alongside new voices, the festival will celebrate how contemporary folk straddles genres, embraces cultures and absorbs new influences. Manchester Folk Festival takes place across the city, but will be based primarily in and around HOME Cinema.
In addition to staging over 16 concerts featuring over 30 artists, Manchester Folk Festival will host the English Folk Expo music showcase, attracting delegates from across the world to experience contemporary English folk and supporting the industry to thrive.
Presenting festival stage giants and folk club legends, the programme spans everything from experimental and indie folk to traditional music. Artists featured across the line-up include Jon Boden and the Remnant Kings, Afro Celt Sound System, False Lights, Keston Cobblers’ Club, John Smith, Josienne and Ben Walker, The Young ‘Uns, Grace Petrie, Quiet Loner, Tom Robinson, and more.
New combinations of artists will appear together, including emerging artists alongside big names. Whether it’s folk-punk double bass player Nina Harries to shanty-singer and squeezebox player Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, singer-songwriter and visual artist Jinnwoo to acoustic folk-pop duo Sound of the Sirens, Manchester Folk Festival aims to introduce audiences to experience new sounds.
Each year, Manchester Folk Festival and the English Folk Expo will have an international partner. Three special guest artists from Canada’s Prince Edward Island will join the bill for 2017.
