Cambridge Folk Festival 2002 Review

United Kingdom | | 04 August 2002

The 2002 Cambridge Folk Festival at Cherry Hinton, despite rain of near biblical proportions, went brilliantly well. There is always something to suit at Cambridge to such an extent that you question that word 'folk' in the title. A weekend of nearly fifty acts that ranged from the fiery Romanian 'wedding and funeral music' of Taraf de Haïdouks to the dependable old school Dubliners. Oh and Joe Strummer and where he fitted in is anyone's guess but there again he was at the recent Fleadh so I'll let him off.

Whatever, with the Guinness flowing (twelve thousand pints sold by end Friday?) it didn't really matter. It was a matter of dodging the growing lakes between the three stages and taking your pick of the cultural diversity.

On Thursday evening Billy Bragg, Cambridge stalwart, delivered his usual politically tinged set to the appreciative audience in the Radio2 tent. Historically Thursday always offered an ad hoc music session centered around the Guinness tent however it has now been incorporated into the body of the festival and in the process unfortunately destroyed some of the spontaneity.