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Great British Folk Festival

Venue: Butlins
Town: Skegness
Date: 30th November - 2nd December
Website: http://www.bigweekends.com

Sunday

The headliners for the night on Centre Stage were Ashley Hutchings former outfit, The Albion Band and like all Albion Bands before them they are made up of members of other bands and solo projects and between them they have a goodly number of awards and nominations and for good reason. Whilst the Albion band are the longest serving band playing GBFF because of the nature of the band it is also, by average the youngest.

This is the last date of the year for the Albion Band and they seem intent on taking the Skegness trademark of bracing and turning it into storming as they launch a co-ordinated folk rock assault on both stage and audience, they're turned up to eleven and ready to go.

With "Vice Of The People" making up the bulk of the set and vocal duties distributed across the band this was a set that could have been destined to bring GBFF to a close. The flat floor is rammed, with barely enough space to bounce up and down. The band are giving their all and the audience are giving it back there is a definite pleasure loop and for the climax, Ashley Hutchings rejoins the band on stage for the first time since he handed on the baton.

The well educated audience know they are in the presence of something special as Kat Gilmore calls Ashley to the stage and he moves to share the mic with his son Blair Dunlop. There is a real sense of occasion, this could become one of those I was there moments.

The Albion Band had a great time are we shared it with them, this was a set well worthy of bringing the Great British Folk Festival to an end and an entire audience walking away wanting more. The GBFF had saved the best for last and through that collaboration of the Albion Band and Ashley Hutchings I and many other people ended our 2012 festival season having seen something we couldn't have seen elsewhere.

GBFF once again proved to be a highly enjoyable conclusion to the 2012 festival season. In folk festival terms it really is something that is unique, there are festivals where you can pay as much just to see the artists as you can here for food and accommodation as well.

This was year three, The Great British Folk Festival continues to get bigger and better, delivering some unique experiences on the festival season. They are definitely heading in the right direction, but they need to sort out the timing issues. Folk acts can be difficult to set up, maybe drafting in a specialist sound engineer to help the hard working local crews might help.

What you can't fault is the commitment. There was a lot of talk on the Monday of people meeting up again next year. The Great British Folk Festival has established it's self in a relatively short time and looks set to build on that. Here's to a great weekend and many more to come.

Thanks to Dave Hill from Tenacity PR, Phil and Bev Knight from Street Music, Ian Blenkinsop(great tunes between the sets), Sue Marchant from BBC Cambridge, Allan Wilkinson from Northern Sky, Jae Hopkins from the Butlins management and Phil Carter & Kev Boyd the other Fatea conspirators.

Words & Pictures Neil King