Games Put A Damper On Cambridge Folk

Cambridge Folk Festival wasn’t the instant sellout it was a few years ago but on July 26-29 it was full every day except the Friday, which clashed with the opening of the Olympic Games in London.

The world-famous event once shifted its 10,000 tickets within days of the on-sale, or at least before the festival started, but budgets had to be cut when a deal with ticketing company Secure Ticket UK cost it £645,000, ($1.06 million).

Secure went bust when it was in possession of most of Cambridge’s box office, an incident that caused considerable embarrassment for Cambridge City Council, which promotes the show.

Event booker Eddie Barcan has still managed to attract headliners with international reputations. This year it was Clannad, Nanci Griffith and Joan Armatrading, but recently Cambridge has lacked the strength in depth of previous years.

However, the event is still considered worthy of hours of TV coverage by Sky Arts and the support of BBC Radio 2.
Festival marketing manager Neil Jones said that, after a summer that has delivered atrocious weather for many UK festivals, he’s pleased Cambridge was blessed with “mainly beautiful conditions.”

The exception was the Sunday that saw all of Cambridgeshire hit by two or three torrential storms.

Other acts at Cambridge included June Tabor & Oysterband, Seth Lakeman, Billy Bragg, The Proclaimers, Brighouse & Rastrick Brass Band, and Martin Simpson.