The Magpies Festival at Sutton Park on August 8 and 9 has sold out. Who’s playing?

The Magpies: Hosting their annual folk festival at Sutton Park on Friday and Saturday

THE Magpies Festival at Sutton Park, Sutton-on-the-Forest, York, on August 8 and 9 has sold out.

Run by Bella Gaffney, fellow founding member Holly Brandon and Ellie Gowers of transatlantic folk band The Magpies, the festival combines live music on two stages with workshops and activities.

Taking part on Friday on the main stage will be Simeon Hammond Dallas, 6pm, Gnoss, 8pm, and Baskery, 10pm, while the Brass Castle Stage will play host to Roswell Road, 5pm, The 309s, 7pm, Theo Mizu & Banda, 9pm, and Ford Dimensional, 11pm.

Saturday’s main stage acts will be Dan Webster Band, 12 noon, Mishra, 2pm, Julian Taylor, 4pm, The Magpies, 6pm, Rob Heron and The Tea Pad Orchestra, 8pm, and Elephant Sessions, 10pm. In action on the Brass Castle Stage will be The Shackleton Trio, 1pm, Edwina Hayes, 3pm, Janice Burns & Jon Doran, 5pm, Jaywalkers, 7pm, and The Deep Blue, 9pm.

Baskery: Headlining the Magpies Festival main stage on Friday

The workshops and activities include Yoga with Elaine Welsh, Brass Castle Tent,  Saturday and Sunday, 9am to 9.50am, Children’s Songs, Rhythms and Ceilidh with Mishra, Brass Castle Tent, Saturday, 10am to 10.50am, and Sea Shanties with guitar and banjo player Bella Gaffney, Brass Castle Tent, Saturday, 11am to 11.50am.

They continue with Bushcraft and Survival Skills with Forest School For All, outside The Nest, Saturday, 1pm to 2pm, Be Your Own Best Friend with GFS England & Wales, The Nest, Saturday, 3pm to 4pm, and Ceilidh with Archie Churchill-Moss, Brass Castle Tent, Saturday, 1pm to 11.55pm.

Food and drink and market stalls will be on site too. For full festival details, go to themagpiesfestival.co.uk.

REVIEW: Paul Rhodes’s verdict on Blair Dunlop with Ellie Gowers, The Crescent, York, 6/3/2022

Blair Dunlop: “Cutting an elfin figure, he was refreshingly un-diva like”. All pictures: Paul Rhodes

THE best moments in live music are often those that can’t be re-created by spinning the record at home. When touring musicians also play together rather than skedaddling after their set, then magic can happen.

As Blair Dunlop, Magpies’ fiddler Holly Brandon and support act Ellie Gowers sang and played together, Sunday’s concert went from middling to great. The energy and camaraderie between the performers was palpable and the musical results were wonderful.

Blair Dunlop has been forging a strong cult following since his debut back in 2012. As the son of UK folk royalty Ashley Hutchings, Dunlop is used to the level of expectation that welds itself to any son or daughter of such a figure.

He has since moved progressively away from those folk antecedents, but to his credit has also kept traditional elements to the fore. Newly turned 30, he has doubtless many twists and turns ahead.

Like others of his generation (take a bow Ed Harcourt and Teddy Thompson), Dunlop has perhaps found it hard to find a musical spot to wed himself too, and can therefore end up caught between stylistic camps.

Ellie Gowers: “Well-chiselled songs and playing were consistently fine”

On this tour he was playing new tunes. Interestingly, he chose to first play songs that have been rejected by “the suits at the record label”. You have to say they probably made the right call – here was the sound of Dunlop trying too hard. His tale of a Chesterfield working man’s café was simply too workmanlike. Better was to come.

Dunlop is good company on stage. Cutting an elfin figure, he was refreshingly un-diva like, instead talking at length of his love of cars and football. 356, his song about a classic Porsche was memorable (if anatomically incorrect) and new number Giulietta took his love of petrol but made it more relatable.

Dunlop’s guitar playing was consistently excellent, but like the man himself never too flash. Beneath The Citadel was perhaps the best received, with some wonderful picking on display, as well as some high-brow lyrics to match his own fine brows.

Support act Ellie Gowers is a new name to the city, but certainly one to watch. Her well-chiselled songs and playing were consistently fine. From the heart of England (Warwick), Gowers was previewing her debut album (due Autumn 2022) based on traditional folk tales from her home county, along with earlier material in a singer-songwriter garb.

What was arresting was the variety that she weaves into her songs, and the quality of her crystal-clear voice. For an encore, Dunlop and Gowers took on Gillian Welch’s mighty Dark Turn Of Mind and fought it to a draw. Two performers who unmistakably bring the best out of one another. Long may they run.

Review by Paul Rhodes

Blair Dunlop and Ellie Gowers: Uniting for encore cover of Gillian Welch’s Dark Turn Of Mind