
..."the best gig on the North Sea..." - Dave Pegg
Important Announcement
'Please see the press release below launched today Wednesday 24th February. A big thank you as always to everyone who is patiently supporting our very special event for when we can eventually meet again on our lovely pier in Cromer!'
SCOTT BUTLER, FESTIVAL DIRECTOR
'Folk on
The Pier 2020 & 2021 saved for 2022'
Following
its inevitable postponement in 2020, Cromer’s popular music festival had hoped
to be taking place at the town’s Pavilion Theatre on 7, 8 and 9 May in 2021. However,
despite the crossing of many fingers for some months now, sadly Boris Johnson’s
recent announcement of the Government’s ‘Roadmap to Recovery’ strategy regarding
the Covid-19 crisis has forced the organiser to consider certain options for
this year. With many hours of provisional negotiations already in hand,
festival curator Scott Butler has worked tirelessly to secure the original
line-up of artists booked for the 2020/2021 event to be the line-up that will
make Folk on the Pier a special event in 2022. The new dates for the event will
be 6, 7 and 8 May 2022.
Scott
explains ‘the longer the latest lockdown continued and despite the roll out of
the vaccine, it remained uncertain whether certain types of events could take
place at their normally full capacity for the foreseeable future, and I felt it
was unfair for the many loyal fans to be kept in the dark about any plans. With
many coming from afar, as usual accommodation and travel needed to be arranged,
so making the announcement now relieves them of those concerns’.
Renowned
as ‘the best gig on the North Sea’, the event attracts a plethora of well-known
and up-and-coming folk, folk-rock and acoustic artists from across the UK. ‘The
line-up for 2020 was always going to be a special line-up; I am totally
overwhelmed that those artists have such faith in Folk on the Pier that they
have been willing to commit to a second postponement’.
With
the unchanged line-up now in place, Scott and the Pavilion Theatre management
are keen to reassure fans who had already purchased weekend passes for the
original 2020 event, as well as individual concerts, that their tickets are
valid for the same seat bookings in 2022.
The line-up
is once again a ‘who’s who’ of award winners. Among the headliners are BAFTA
Nominated TV Entertainer of the Year and The British Academy Gold Award of
Composers recipient Richard Digance, and Wizz Jones who picked up a Lifetime
Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards.
The
ever-evolving Demon Barbers XL also won a BBC Radio Award for Best Live Act
will present their new show ‘Rise Up’ and as always festival Patron Ashley
Hutchings MBE who has been the recipient of numerous awards will present one of
his latest special projects for the festival.
But
it is not all about award winners – supporting acts include festival favourites
the Gerry Colvin Band, Feast of Fiddles,
the Spikedrivers, Kevin Dempsey, Alan Reid, and the Urban Folk Quartet; plus
newcomers to the Cromer Pier theatre - Linda Watkins, Martin Harley, Ninebarrow
and the Redhills. Also making their first appearance at the festival are local
acts Alden, Patterson & Dashwood, the Shackleton Trio and Klezmerized!
To
close the festival on the Sunday evening is 'the band without whom' there would
not be a Folk on The Pier - Fairport Convention. Little did they know when they
invented British folk-rock that it would become the inspiration for what has
become a very popular and enduring music festival.