And so to the final day of the weekend, which began with greeting local morris dancers all decked out in their dancing gear, and a strong coffee ahead of going to see another veteran of the folk scene John Kirkpatrick who had been foolishly put on in the bijou Broad Roots club tent leading to Uncle Tom Cobley and all attempting to squeeze in and for many milling around the entrance occasionally catching a glimpse of his hands moving back and forth or hearing him emit a cuss when making a rare mistake in the same place in a tune on several occasions. Drawing upon a wealth of songs from Shropshire and Shrewsbury including a set of May day tunes even when his nimble fingers deserted him and he continued to hit the wrong key his cussing over his playing mattered not a jot to the audience who lapped up every note, tale, and observation. Looking like a seasoned professor he jests about everyone playing war time songs at the moment due to the anniversary of world war 1 and plays a moving American song seemingly written from the perspective of an anxious mother entitled 'I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier' that adds a poignant air to the set before departing to rapturous applause from long time admirers and new and recent converts. Superb.

A trek cross field to soapbox leads to catching a set of observational and personal songs from the pen of Tony James Shelvin most notably the introspective 'Faith in Myself' and the storytelling 'Paradise in South Ealing' that had a slight hint of Gerry Rafferty about it. On the main stage Pax 4, whose roots stem from the band Xim, gathered together, quite literally a Massif village orchestra from workshops that they had held, and played a set of tunes based upon, or drawn from Central France, concluding with about 40 musicians joining them onstage playing all manner of instruments on an upbeat instrumental entitled 'Thickthorn', the title presumably taken from an area just outside for most of them their home base of Norwich that is most famous for its massive roundabout. Thankfully they all negotiated the tune with ease, and didn't lose direction, which in itself was a major achievement.

While I can play a modest amount of percussion watching Johnny Kalsi and members of the Dhol Foundation teaching us all how to play patterns he described as mummy / daddy and odd time signatures was fun for a while I knew when the time was right to move on to some more music, and a return to the main stage brought a potential star of the future in 16 year old Tilly Dalglish. Decked out in an all purple outfit from top hat to toe her mature cover of Iris Dement's 'Our Town', was followed by her own emotive compositions notably 'Lonely Birds' with its refrain of 'As I tried to take flight you broke my fall' there was enough to suggest that she may well be one to watch out for in the now vast pool of folk inspired female songwriters. She was followed by the man who had largely been organising the events on the Broad Roots stages John Ward with his band.

Unlike Tilly John has been on the circuit for more than 25 years, and a couple of years ago was the winner of the Ryedale Folk Festival song of the festival award. His repertoire of songs, both original and traditional is wide, and it would explain why today' s set drew more upon the acoustic and folk side. Opening with the traditional, yet somewhere between tradition and the chiming Byrds cover of 'Bells Of Rhymney' he then went on to play a set that while at times sorrowfull still had a positive feel to it. His take on conflict in ' If you want to know about war ask a soldier' comes from talking to former soldiers on an allotment, while equally a song about the great floods that hit the east coast in 1953 told a story from the perspective of those who lived through them when many drowned. But it wasn't all gloom and doom. 'Common Ground' advocated that we are all the same underneath and is a song of tolerance, while the Cajun inspired 'Lay me low' had the audience up on their feet mid afternoon. A fine guitarist he also proved mid set that he is a mean bodhran player as well getting sounds out of a hand drum that were hard to believe would be possible. A known artist in the East word is spreading about Mr Ward.

Well worth checking out his songs and albums indeed. Trekking back across the vast acreage and stopping off for more excellent veggie stew from the fish finger stall people and stopping off to wander around the many and varied arts and crafts stalls I resisted the urge to print my own t shirt, build a boat, or throw a pot in the name of music, and got back on track and trek to see the tuneful and traditional Tin River. Morris tunes such as 'Stanton Drew' with its warnings about dancing on a Sunday sat neatly alongside rag time and Eastern European tunes more than ably played by this Suffolk based trio on melodeons, whistles and guitar. War time reared its head again on 'Soldiers Joy' from the Vaughan Williams while ' My dark eyed Sailor' ends in happiness as opposed to disaster, unlike set closer 'High Barbary' which seemed to contain a very high level of death and destruction. Evidence once again that there are many fine local acts across the country who are equal to, and in many cases, better than the bigger names on the circuit. Tin River put in a gold star performance.

It is always good to see something a bit different at a folk festival and the Will Pound Band led by Will on harmonica, and with a beat boxing bass player, ably abetted by a fluent fiddle player and guitarist proved to be just that. A master harmonica player Will's take on the traditional tunes such as 'Mauldon Rattle' gave it a different slant and edge, and his blues playing showed that equally he wouldn't be out of place onstage with BB King. There are Appalachian and American influences aplenty, but he is also not afraid of heading into classical territory as well, making this one of the most varied of sets from the weekend. Not only that he got people up to dance as well, succeeding in reaching the feet as well as the head. Well worth investigating. Continuing the younger end of the folk circuit will was followed onstage by The Keston Cobblers club and after them the much talked about collaboration of Jim Moray and Sam Carter in False Lights.

The Keston Cobblers Club fall somewhere between 2 of their contemporaries on the circuit namely The Leisure Society and Mumford and sons with their folk pop songs, most notably on the jaunty 'Your Mother'. It is perhaps the pop sensibility of the former that informs their sound most of all and their often upbeat songs had a large section of the audience up and dancing. Many of their songs have choruses that build to a crescendo with soaring voices and descend to hushed 4 part harmonies such as on 'Lola' (not the Kinks song), and to prove that there are a variety of influences mixed up in there they played a great version of Paul Simon's 'Graceland'. However after a while the close proximity to other artists, albeit well played and delivered started to leave me a little flat, and left me looking forward to the taking to the stage of False Lights, who didn't disappoint. Not just Moray and Carter but a 6 piece band their debut performance took traditional songs and ancient words and poetry and gave them a modern makeover most notably on set opener the raucous ''Skewball' with its wall of sound guitars leaving many no doubt wondering if it was Folk East or the nearby Latitude festival that they were at.

However if the opener had a raw edged rock sound to it they soon settled into a more recognisable folk rock sound not a million miles away from the early days of Fairport, and it became clear that they would have equally been an influence as much as Radiohead would have been. This was evident on their jaunty take on the traditional 'Maid of Australia' (cover the kids ears time again) which while doffing its cap to the traditional version from the canon of songs from old one time Norfolk singer Walter Pardon was given more of a Fairport style treatment, and sounded mighty good for it for sure. I don't think e bow guitar effects were around in Walter's time, and we can only imagine what he would have thought of this ability to create a drone sound from a guitar on 'Polly on the Shore'. Equally their haunting rendition of Tennyson's ode to crossing the Solent upon leaving the Isle of Wight on 'Crossing The Bar' was given an edge as was 'The Back of Newfoundland' with its raw edged guitar and sweet harmonies. While what False Lights are doing isn't perhaps as ground breaking as many would imagine or had hoped for they have given a tradition a shot in the arm and kick that will surprise many, notably those who are aware of the traditional version. As to whether False Lights will be as successful as Bellowhead in crossing over into a more mainstream territory remains to be seen, but it is pleasing to see them attempting to do so.

..and so to the conclusion of a magnificent weekend and festival. Local heroes Feral Mouth have been winning over thousands of fans with their string driven songs, particularly in East Anglia, for 4 years now, and having released 2 ep's they came to Folk East fresh from an album launch for the aptly named 'Nelson's County' from the Norfolk based band and tour ready to tear the place apart as headliners on the soapbox stage, and they sure did. Finding a credit card singer JP announces it, and it is claimed, leading to him exclaiming that if he was ever to lose a credit card a Folk Festival is the place that he would want it to happen as there would be queues of people wanting to return it, A spot on observation. Settling in with upbeat instrumental opener 'Nelson's County Breakdown' they then launched into the breakneck speed bluegrass driven bile ridden anti tv talent show song 'Being Herd' aimed fairly and squarely at Cowell and his cohorts. While the album gets mostly aired on the evening they still find space in the set for speedy renditions classic songs 'rolling in my sweet babies arms' and 'will the circle be unbroken' complete with all 6 members singing in harmony, and joined by three quarters of a packed out tent joining in as well arms aloft and dancing in a frenzied fashion. In early song 'By the grace of Genghis' that I am pleased to see still makes the set , they have perhaps one of the few positively upbeat songs about a long lost dead cat that you will ever hear, while album concluder ' Leaves' attests to singer and main songwriter JP's political non alignment pact seemingly taking if anything a libertarian approach to life as opposed any wing or central position. If he does have any alignment it might well be easier to say that in covering Townes Van Zandt's 'White Freightliner' they have paid homage to the one person they would put on a pedestal, and worship at the alter of. Put quite simply there is an energy about his band to match the quality of heir material and you don't often find he two co-existing as well as they do in this band. Its taken its time, and all good things do, but truly the Feral's might well make that breakthrough out to a wider audience, and into another musical realm and league this or next year, and many in East Anglia will be able to say we saw them first of all. Superb.

And so an amazing weekend concluded, tent packed away, and car awaiting it was with regret that I traipsed off looking back upon a magical weekend, a fantastic setting, sights, smells and incredible music. Three years in, and this festival just gets better and better. All I can say is that Folk East is yet another reason to head out East for the weekend. Yes for many it will be a trek, but hey some go all the way to Nepal and don't get to sample as many delights as this great event has to offer. Well worth adding to your calendar for 2015. Personally, I can't wait.

RICHARD PENGUIN. ( Richard Penguin broadcasts the Acoustic and Eclectic radio show on Future radio 2-3 pm on a Sunday afternoon and runs Richard Penguin Press and Promotion working with musicians).