Sunday

Tim Van Eykan is a top class fiddle player and more recently singer, Nancy Kerr takes fiddle duties, Oliver Knight guitar, Peter Flood percussion and the oft overlooked Colin Fletcher on bass.
Van Eyken is considered to be part of folk's new wave. It's easy to see why. The band is highly experienced and it's easy to see that they love what they are doing.
There are new twists on old songs and when it comes to folk songs, this combo like the body count high.
Somewhat alarmingly and too a degree thankfully, they do it without it being too dour. It sort of heightens the effect when life is made to seem so cheap.
It's always a sign of a good band that they make time vanish. Suddenly they announce their last number and you don't where the forty five minutes have gone.
Choices time again Eddi Reader verses Cara Dillion. I missed Cara's set yesterday so she wins.
Once again it seems the perfect move. Cara is on really top form and seems to prefer the far more intimate atmosphere of the Radio Two stage.
It's packed in the main area and side of stage looks like a whose who of folk music.
It is such a warm welcoming environment, Cara feeds off the crowd then gives it back by the bucket as a response cycle really starts building.
Cara has a fantastic set of musicians working for her and it's one of those occasions where everything just comes together. She encourages the audience to join in on the chorus of a couple of her songs.
Cara is an artist that can move you one minute and have you smiling the next. In most places it's a rare talent and even Cambridge Folk Festival, it's not common. Something very special indeed.
There's a natural gap in the program so I take the opportunity to take on my annual nacho grande challenge.
Every year for the last five or so years I've tried to get on the outside of a nachos grande and a pint. The nachos grande is chicken, guacamole, refried beans, sour cream, chillies, cheese and nachos. It's a piled high plate and as per usual I failed. Fortunately Nick is on hand to polish the rest off so none of it got wasted. Naturally I manage to finish off the pint.
The lull is welcome. It helps set you up for the final stint.
The first act of that final stint is Mozaik. The band concentrates on different folk styles. The sound covers quite large parts of the upper northern hemisphere, starting in America, swinging through the Celtic realms and on into Eastern Europe.
It's got a lot of strange time signatures and some even stranger instrumentation. There's one that looks like a lute played with a bow and another one that looks like a cross between a harp guitar and a hurdy gurdy without the handle that turns out to be a nickel harp. One of the snappers, Mark, suggests putting the names into Google and see what comes up. I'll stick the pics up in the features section. (eventually)
It's all very educational, but it really doesn’t do it for me musically.

Continued