Cambridge Folk Festival

Cambridge Folk Festival 2024 made £320,000 loss

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Council documents have revealed that Cambridge Folk Festival made a loss of £320,000 in 2024.

The documents have been released ahead of a Cambridge City Council meeting that will discuss the fallow year that the festival has decided to take.

According to the report, in the years prior to the pandemic, Cambridge Folk Festival returned an average profit of more than £200,000, which was used to fund free community events in Cambridge.

However, whilst revenues remained stable, equipment costs have escalated and the number of people camping at the four-day festival has significantly decreased. Factors such as this led the festival to announce in January that it would cancel the 2025 event and explore opportunities for 2026.

This year, the council plans to review the festival’s format so it can return in 2026. In its place, the council has allocated to £75,000 to programme several free outdoor events and venue-based folk concerts with full details expected to be revealed w/c April 7.

Holding the Cambridge Folk Festival at Cherry Hinton Hall, Cambridge provides an indirect economic benefit of £2.3 million per annum, with £1.48 million being spent off-site and £183,000 spent on-site.

Revenue from the festival previously funded free cultural events in Cambridge, but financial losses now threaten this support.

The council has been tasked with a £6 million savings target by 2027. This was a key factor in pressing pause on Cambridge Folk Festival, the documents state.

Source: Cambridge Folk Festival 2024 made £320,000 loss

Cancellation of Cambridge Folk Festival a ‘big blow’ to music scene and economy

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Festival organisers said the event would return in 2026 but people in the city have described this year’s cancellation as “incredibly disappointing”

Music lovers have warned the cancellation of one of the country’s biggest folk festivals this year will be a big blow to the local economy.

The Cambridge Folk Festival has attracted stars like Robert Plant, Joan Baez, James Taylor, Van Morrison and Nick Cave over its 60 year history.

But organisers have announced it will not go ahead this year at Cherry Hinton Hall, though they hope it will return in 2026.

Music promoter Simon Baker said: “It will obviously have an effect on restaurants and hotels and all of those things that rely on the festival for that weekend in July. I couldn’t put a figure on it but it’s a big blow.”

The local music community are also concerned about the effect on musicians starting out on their careers.

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Cambridge folk festival review – Robert Plant thrills, Peggy Seeger inspires and Oysterband rock

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The Led Zeppelin frontman’s latest band, Saving Grace, riffs on country, folk, rock and blues, but the weekend belongs to female American singer-songwriters

obert Plant is clearly enjoying himself. He may be a rock god, but he’s also a music fan with impressively eclectic taste. Twenty-four years ago he was on this same stage at the Cambridge folk festival with Priory of Brion, reviving 1960s favourites by Them and Love. He has worked with four bands and Alison Krauss since then; tonight he “presents” his new-ish five-piece, Saving Grace, who started in low-key fashion five years ago supporting Fairport Convention, but here give a masterclass in how to revive and rework country, folk, rock and blues.

Dressed in black, Plant trades vocals with Suzi Dian while adding occasional harmonica and bass guitar. First comes the brooding and bluesy Win My Train Fare Home, which he originally recorded at the Festival in the Desert with English guitarist Justin Adams. Next up is a charming rendition of traditional The Cuckoo, backed by banjo, and then a pounding revival of Led Zeppelin’s Friends, with Dian adding accordion. Later come tributes to Los Lobos and Bert Jansch, and a rousing a cappella finale of the traditional Incredible String Band favourite Bid You Goodnight. It’s a thrilling, compelling performance.

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Folk music is booming — so why are Britain’s folk festivals struggling?

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The genre is reaching more audiences than ever but two historic events are facing cancellation and scores of others are fighting to stay afloat

On an August evening in the idyllic grounds of a country estate on the border of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, a rising star of folk music, Katherine Priddy, will perform her set at the Towersey village festival. It is the event’s 60th edition and also its last.

Up to 10,000 people attend each year. But after suffering heavy losses since entertainment re-emerged from lockdowns, the Heap family, who run Towersey, have bowed to economic reality. Their festival is among the latest casualties in a crisis threatening the future of gatherings that have been a fixture of the British summer since the Fifties.

“It’s devastating to see Towersey close,” says Priddy, 29. “Ticket-buying habits have not returned to what they were pre-Covid, but this is a wonderful festival in so many ways and its loss is awful for those who have been going for years.”

Thirty miles away, the village of Cropredy in Oxfordshire is the venue for another endangered festival, also in August, the annual reunion of past and present members of the celebrated folk-rock band Fairport Convention.

Towersey and Cropredy are not alone in facing bleak times. The Association of Independent Festivals says more than 40 UK events have been postponed, cancelled or lost altogether this year. Faced with a surge in operating costs, at least 170 have disappeared in five years.

Eliza Carthy, a singer and fiddler and president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, was shocked to learn of Towersey’s closure. “I feel it personally because it was the first festival to give me a solo gig, more than 30 years ago,” she says. “I was absolutely terrified but ended up loving every minute.”

Terry Donahue, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, Dave Swarbrick and Trevor Lucas of Fairport Convention performing in the garden of The Brasenose Arms in Cropredy on July 22, 1973. This event became the precursor for the annual Cropredy Festival
Terry Donahue, Dave Pegg, Dave Mattacks, Dave Swarbrick and Trevor Lucas of Fairport Convention performing in the garden of The Brasenose Arms in Cropredy on July 22, 1973. This event became the precursor for the annual Cropredy Festival
BRIAN COOKE/REDFERNS

Carthy, a member of Britain’s pre-eminent folk dynasty as the daughter of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, believes folk music is at a crossroads, events folding despite large, loyal followings, while, paradoxically, some observers see a resurgence driven by inventive young musicians pushing at old barriers and embracing other genres.

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