Folk Rocks!

The folk festival that’s a celebration of place, history and celebrates its 20th birthday this month.

It’s late July and one of the hottest of days of the year. But at the Okehampton offices of music and education charity Wren Music, minds are already focused on autumn, and the organisation’s flagship event the annual Baring-Gould Folk Weekend & Song School at the end of October.

At their former chapel HQ at Ebenezer Hall, and with the air con blasting out, Wren’s founders, Marilyn Tucker and Paul Wilson, are busy finalising the programme. They’ve had plenty of practice: 2019 marks the 20th year of the event.

Among the performers at that first Baring-Gould Festival in 1999 were three of the biggest names in English folk music: Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson and Cyril Tawney, while regulars down the years include American legend Peggy Seeger, and Phil Beer of Show of Hands, who is patron of the event.

Inevitably, some things have changed since 1999. In those days, it was called the Baring-Gould Folk Festival and for the first few years it was held at venues in Lewdown and Bratton Clovelly. It has since removed the word ‘festival’ from its name to reflect that all the concerts are in intimate, indoor settings, and it has moved the short distance to venues in Okehampton after quickly outgrowing the two villages.

When it comes to the music, however, this is one event that has always stayed true to its roots – traditional folk songs. And despite having to move location, choosing Okehampton keeps the association with Reverend Sabine Baring-Gould, the Lewtrenchard clergyman who travelled Devon and Cornwall in the 1800s to collect the songs sung by local people.