TICKETS are about to go on sale for one of Cheshire’s most cherished and celebrated festivals of music and culture.
Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival is returning on June 14 to 16, with previous events welcoming up to 30,000 visitors and 400 narrowboats to the town's historic streets and canalside venues.
The flagship event promises a weekend packed full of musical entertainment, culture, dancing, crafts, stall, local food and drink, family entertainment, and much, much more.
Fans of canal culture get to witness a colourful flotilla of narrowboats, as well as a floating market with bargee traders selling everything from handcrafted gins to arts and crafts, local delicacies, and hand-made clothing.
While the full list of acts is yet to be released, 70s kids will be delighted to learn pop pioneers, Showaddywaddy, are confirmed as Friday night’s mainstage headline act.
Local pubs and restaurants also run a fringe event with its own exciting programme of free live music and open mike sessions, ideal for those needing a break from the hurly burly of the main festival site.
Camping will be available at Middlewich Town Football Club for up to 60 tents and 25 campervans, where campers have access to toilets and showers, a bar, and even a cooked breakfast. Pitches can be booked here.
There’ll also be a new dedicated folk music stage at the football club this year – the John McAteer Stage – with performances on Saturday and Sunday daytime.
This is only the second year festival organisers, Claire Armstrong and Helen Ireland, have their hands on the tiller, but Claire is confident 2024 will be ‘one of the best for some time’.
She said: “Folk and Boat is such a huge part of Middlewich life, and it shows what we can do when we pull together as a community. It's the town's flagship event.
“It's all looking very professional this year. We’ve just finalised all the acts, which we'll be announcing soon.
“We’re delighted to have booked Showaddywaddy for the Friday night. They played the festival in 2019 and were hugely popular. It's all very exciting.
“We’ve got 10 news boats booked for the market this year, and we’ve been getting enquiries about camping since January.
“The new folk stage is a fitting tribute to John McAteer, who was a founder of the festival and mainstay of the Cheshire folk scene for years.
“And as it’s on the camping site, the football club will benefit because they’ll be able to open their bar.
“If the camping fills up, which it might, we also have a backup field on a local farm.”
Claire says while there’s a huge amount of work involved, she’s delighted with the way preparations are going so far.
She added: “We’ve got a wonderful team of volunteers who just work away in the background. Without those, we couldn’t make it happen.
"It's going to be an unforgettable weekend."
Tickets will be available from next week through online agent Ticketstripe, or on arrival.
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