This year's festival programme

Friday Evening

7.30pm - Watersmeet - Allendale Village Hall
8.30pm - Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening - Allendale Village Hall
10.00pm - Cash Cows - The Lion House

Watersmeet is Anna Hughes and Jessie Howard. Partners in life and in music, they started playing and writing together in 2022, to share slow-burning, heartfelt songs with lofty melodies.

Interweaving guitar arrangements meet dark, spacious harmonium drones creating a dreamlike sound carried by close-knit harmonies. Their music explores ideas of rest, freedom and wildness, centred in a connection to the natural world. Love is an expansive theme in their songs, inviting the audience into a space of acceptance, hope and curiosity. This year sees the release of Watersmeet's debut EP following a successful Kickstarter campaign, with the support of Generator’s Create:Release programme.

kathryn tickell & td smiley - photo by georgia claire.JPG

Named after the old Northumbrian word for twilight, The Darkening is made up of four North-East England-based members: Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, vocals), Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), Kieran Szifris (octave mandolin), Joe Truswell (drums, percussion); with Josie Duncan from the Isle of Lewis (vocals, clarsach). Together these dazzling musicians create musical magic; dynamic and unique “Ancient Northumbrian Futurism”.

Based in the shadow of Hadrian’s Wall yet reaching out to the wider world, Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening explore the connecting threads of music, landscape and people over a period of almost 2000 years. Songs range from themes of freedom, nature and venturing out into the world after times of darkness, to a Roman inscription with links to Libya and Syria magnetically pulled into the 21st century with glorious vocal harmonies and the wildest of piping.

Cash Cows play music that is happily difficult to categorise and playfully impossible to predict. You'll love them!.

Saturday Afternoon

12.00 noon - Wayward Jane - Allendale Village Hall
1.30pm - The Rheingans Sisters- Allendale Village Hall
3.00pm - Johnny Campbell - St. Cuthbert's Church
4.30pm - Mishra - St. Cuthbert's Church

4pm - Family Ceilidh - Allendale Village Hall

Wayward Jane are Rachel Petyt, Dan Abrahams, Sam Gillespie and Michael Strarkey. Their music is a modern, transatlantic interpretation of American folk and Old Time traditions, blending roots music with fresh arrangements and original compositions. Their rich sound features fiddle, clawhammer banjo, double bass, guitar, wooden flute and close vocal harmony. Their live shows have a joyful energy, expressing the fine musicianship and playful chemistry of the band members with material ranging in mood from high- octane, toe-tapping tunes to tender and soulful songs. Wayward Jane tend to leave audiences with a glow in their hearts.

Johnny Campbell is passionate about the songs and stories of northern England. Taking inspiration from traditional material, as well as penning new songs of his own, he explores what it means to be human today, as well as looking back at our history.

2024 sees Johnny Campbell releasing True North, an album of traditional northern folk songs recorded on their respective county summits. From Northumberland and Durham, to Lancashire and Merseyside, Campbell has travelled the length and breadth of the north of England to collect these recordings on or close to the summit of each spot. Each recording documents a moment in time, captured for posterity on a fell or desolate moor, with the album as a whole capturing a tapestry of the north. These recordings are not refined to perfection or studio-polished, but living and breathing songs, just as they’ve been passed down through the generations.

Nominated for 'Best Band' at the 2019 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, The Rheingans Sisters are one of the most visionary acts on the British folk scene today. Creating playful, muscular and richly connecting music that is wholly contemporary while anchored in folk traditions, Rowan and Anna captivate audiences across the world with their adventurous and vibrant use of fiddles, voices, banjo, bansitar, tambourin à cordes, poetry and percussion.

The Rheingans Sisters will release their much anticipated fifth studio album in 2024. Produced by New York based Adam Pietrykowski (whose work includes Lady Maisery’s latest album, ‘Tender’),the visionary duo's new album will also feature collaborations with stars of the contemporary old-time American scene, combining grounded yet soaring sonic contributions to the sisters’ already celebrated genre of “avant-garde trad” (Songlines).

Mishra are a global folk collective with strong roots in U.K folk, out of which they weave a tight web of intricate, Indian- influenced original music that defies definition and has already brought awards recognition since their formation in 2017.

Saturday Evening

7.00pm - WOLF - Village Square
8.00pm - Panther Panther! - Allendale Village Hall
9:30pm - TURFU - Allendale Village Hall

The burning of the wolf bonfire will take place in the Marketplace. The burning will be accompanied by music and a procession.

With disconcerting simplicity, TURFU, this futuristic duo presents a daring mix of dancing accordion rhythms alongside the abstract repetitions of electro. Working with long techno crescendos, dissonant squeezebox sounds, and the birthing of confused emotions, these young musicians move between dance hall and club, in a hypnotic trance, which is simultaneously gritty and uplifting.

Panther Panther! will be playing on the Saturday night. Mexican-British Tropical Bass Producer, Pablo Villierezz is joined by Peruvian instrumentalist Suzana Gutarra, blending electronic Cumbia vibes with Sound System Bass Culture and traditional Latin instrumentation for a mystical, otherworldly ride into inner and outer space. Panther Panther!

Sunday Afternoon

12.30pm - Howay The Lasses - Allendale Village Hall

1.45pm - Suntou Susso - Allendale Village Hall

3.15pm - Johnny Flynn - Allendale Village Hall

The North East of England is rich with the discoveries, achievements and successes of women from all strands of life - from writers, and reformers, to animators and engineers. Some stories are known to a degree - others not at all. Musicians Annie Ball, Katie Tertell, Bronwen Davies-Jones and Gareth Davies-Jones have teamed up on "Howay The Lasses" to tell them out loud through original song.

Johnny Flynn is singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. With his soulful voice and heartfelt lyrics, he has captivated audiences around the world. Whether performing on stage or screen, Johnny's talent shines through in every project he takes on. His music is a blend of folk, rock, and indie sounds that have earned him critical acclaim and a dedicated fan base. From his early days as a musician to his success in the acting world, Johnny Flynn continues to inspire with his artistry.

Suntou Susso is a multi-instrumentalist: kora player, percussionist, singer and composer from The Gambia.

Born a Griot in a 700-year old tradition, the kora - a harp-lute with 22 strings - is unique to the Griots of the Mandinka people. Griots have a unique societal role as oral historians, transmitting and preserving a people's culture through the generations in song, music and poetry.

Suntou's family includes some of the world's most highly respected West African musicians. His musical abilities are outstanding, perhaps unique for his generation. An in-demand and charismatic performer, he attracted attention as soon as he arrived on the UK music scene.