Gate to Southwell Festival has international feel to line-up
International artists from the US, Canada, Europe and Australia will grace the stages of this summer’s Gate To Southwell Festival.
The 15th festival will run at Kirklington from Thursday, July 14 to Sunday, July 17.
While last September’s event was a great success — named the best live event of 2021 by RnR music magazine — everyone felt the absence of global acts due to pandemic travel restrictions.
But now, leading French Canadian band Le Vent Du Nord, who were a big hit at the festival in both 2012 and 2017, will return to perform again while celebrating 20 years on the road.
Oregon’s finest contemporary folk duo Fellow Pynins will also be appearing, and Southwell welcomes back the much-loved American banjo and doghouse bass marital combo Truckstop Honeymoon.
Katherine Priddy, one of the rising stars of the thriving British roots music scene, is among the latest names added to this year’s line-up, alongside two of the best bands currently on the live circuit — eight-strong folk rockers Merry Hell and Celtic folk punkers Black Water County.
They’ll join headliners including the celebrated West Coast Scotsmen, Peat & Diesel, Irish legends Dervish, top bluesman Ian Siegal, multi-award-winning French Canadians Le Vent Du Nord and Australian vocal tour-de-force The Spooky Men’s Chorale.
Opening night of the festival on July 14 will be blues night, headlined by singer, songwriter and star guitarist Ian Siegel. He’s a nine-times British Blues Awards winner, a three-times European Blues Awards winner, and he’s twice won Mojo’s blues album of the year.
Alongside Siegel will be Daniel Smith Blues Band led by one of the UK’s best boogie woogie and blues pianists.
Leading the list of Celtic stars at the festival are the much-celebrated Stornaway three-piece band Peat & Diesel, often branded the Hebridean Pogues with their comedic stories of island life.
The July event will also welcome Dervish, BBC Lifetime Achievement Award 2019 winners.Fronted by Cathy Jordan, among Ireland’s most famous singers, Dervish have played everywhere from Glastonbury to Rio De Janeiro in front of 250,000 people.
Bringing a vocal international flavour to the 2022 festival are The Spooky Men’s Chorale, cult figures from New South Wales and Western Australia thanks to albums such as Tooled Up, Urban Sea Shanties and Welcome To The Second Half.
From closer to home is the footstompin’ fiddle-driven rhythms of Noble Jacks, with top singer songwriters such as folk roots veteran Pete Morton and Humberside star Katie Spencer.
There is also the folk Americana of Fritillaries — formerly Rainy Day Woman — Helian, the new folk five piece from the Leeds Conservatoire, and also Huson-Whyte, Southwell’s own highly talented duo.
Also signed up are Chris While and Julie Mathews, the new line-up of highly danceable folk rockers Blackbeard’s Tea Party, Birmingham’s youthful folk supergroup Filkin’s Drift Ensemble featuring Ellie Gowers and the Field & Dyke project with BBC Folk Award winners Greg Russell and Danny Pedlar.
There will be four live music stages as well as street theatre, poetry, comedy, artisan food, traders, cask ales, campfire sessions, morris dancing and ceilidhs.
