Folk Day 2019

A packed day of folk music, dance and song will take place at the thriving Hoole Community Centre, Westminster Road, Hoole on Saturday 23 February 2019. Organised by the people who run the Chester Folk Festival each May, the annual Folk Day brings together the best in local and national musicians and is always a popular and well-attended event.

Things kick off at midday with a chance for anyone who wishes to sing or play a tune in the music and song session. This is followed in the afternoon by the main concert where the headline act, the Wilson Family, will blow your socks off. These five brothers from Teesside have been wowing audiences on the folk scene for decades with the power and sensitivity of their acapella singing. In the past few years, they have appeared in one of the BBC’s Prom concerts as well as in the American premiere of The Last Ship, a show written by Sting. Prepare to be amazed!

Also appearing will be the incomparable John Kirkpatrick. John, one of the most prolific figures on the English folk scene, performs solo, in duos, acoustic groups and electric bands, and has established an enviable reputation as an instrumental virtuoso, as well as a leading interpreter of English folk music. He has been a member of some of the most prominent bands on the British folk scene as well as numerous ceilidh bands.

Completing the concert line up will be the enormously popular local band Full House and Phoebe Rees, an extremely talented singer, fiddler and multi-instrumentalist. Full House have been a preeminent part of the local folk scene for the last thirty years; they’re the resident band at the Raven Folk Club on Sunday nights and seem to go from strength to strength. Phoebe grew up in Scotland where she began learning the fiddle, going on to study as a classical viola player in Edinburgh and London. Now based in Oswestry, she is exploring a new sound by combining fiddle, viola and voice and getting back to her roots in Scottish and other traditional music.

There will be a couple of more informal opportunities to hear from the featured artists over the teatime period before the main evening events get underway, offering both a ceilidh and a folk club. Full House will turn themselves intothe Full House Ceilidh Band to provide some energetic, toe-tapping tunes to dance to, while Baz Parkes, one of the best callers around, will be on hand to guide the dancers, whether beginner or expert, through the proceedings. For the less energetically inclined there will be the alternative of an evening folk club offering another chance to see some of the afternoon’s guest artists and hosted by another family band - local harmony trio The Waite Collective who are mother Mal with daughters Rebecca and Katrina.