Tim Hughes praises organisers of Oxford's Folk Weekend for raising the bar yet again on another superlative three days of music - which even a major fire couldn't stop

  • Folk Weekend: Oxford
  • Various Venues, Oxford
  • April 17-19

Tim Hughes praises organisers of Oxford's Folk Weekend for raising the bar yet again on another superlative three days of music - which even a major fire couldn't stopWhen the organisers of Oxford Folk Weekend threw open their curtains last Friday, they must have rejoiced at the sunshine and the prospect of an effortless three days of live music.

Later that day, they were surely wide-eyed and panicking, like Morris dancers without ale, trying to cope with the closure of their festival HQ as the Randolph Hotel burned a few hundred yards away.

The closure of the Old Fire Station, and the cancellation of its opening acts was an inauspicious start to Oxford’s best weekend of music, but did nothing to take the shine off.

It has become a cliche to say these events get better every year, but in the case of Oxford Folk Weekend, it really has. And there’s nowhere better for an event like this than Oxford city centre.

The event shines the spotlight on some wonderful, unsung local talent, as well as bigger national names, while many of the venues – The Wesley Memorial Church, Pitt Rivers Museum, Modern Art Oxford, and St Barnabas Church – showcase the best of Oxford.

The OFS, which opened for business on Saturday, is an ideal base – particularly it’s bar, which saw lively after show jam sessions by festival stars Lady Maisery, and others, continuing into the night.

Indeed, it was the after-show sessions, including those at The Grapes and The Royal Blenheim, which were the highlight of this year’s festival – not least the stand by Oxford’s Half Moon All Stars on Saturday, who were left looking stunned and, some admitted, a little nervous, when folk superstar Jon Boden rocked up with his fiddle, having just finished playing with his band Bellowhead, over the road at the New Theatre (see opposite).

His bandmate ‘squeezy’ John Spiers – a festival patron – did the same at the OFS.

It was Squeezy John’s set at St Barnabas Church, earlier that day, which proved a festival highlight – his tender melodeon tunes given space to breath away from his bandmates. As hoped, he was joined by Jon, reprieving the much-loved Spiers and Boden partnership which, is officially on indefinite hiatus.

Oxford Mail:

On the fiddle: Jon Boden

Other great moments included stirring sets by Oxford’s Man’s Choir; a beautiful show by Towcester duo Jenkinson’s Folly – the talented multi-instrumentalists filling the cavernous Wesley Memorial Church with cello, guitar whistle and gorgeous voice; and the Hut People’s Afro-Anglo-Latin-Quebecois banging, squeezing and blowing.

But really the Weekend worked as a whole; a feast of creativity that is greater than its parts. Those who make it happen, and who do it all for nowt, deserve high praise indeed.