Beverley’s folk festival has been said to be one of the foremost events in the area for catching the best of the rising stars of the future. Recent years has certainly shown this to be true, with several BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners having performed at it, and artists who have gone on to be well known names on the national and international music circuits.
The final Pre-Festival concert in its series of events to showcase the talent that will be appearing at this year’s festival on 19 -21st June, will be held at the East Riding Theatre in Beverley. At it will be two of young artists who will be appearing in the festivals Area2 Youth programme, The Rachel Hamer Band and Niamh Boadle, along with festival favourites throughout the region and beyond, Holy Moly and the Crackers and Maia.
Niamh Boadle is a young, multi-instrumentalist and traditional singer who has a background in Irish music, as well as exploring English songs and writing her own original songs and tunes. She was a BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards Finalist at 15.
Another young act is the Rachel Hamer Band who are an exciting, young four piece folk band based in Newcastle featuring vocals, guitar, fiddle, whistle, flute, pipes and clog dancing. Between them they perform an exciting blend of traditional and contemporary songs. “The magic of these four lies in their cutting-edge combination which whilst steeped in the tradition has a brilliant fresh sound” Folk Radio UK
Moving on to a more experimental sound, Maia are self-proclaimed sci-fi folk evangelists and have been described as “Harmonic psychedelic sci-fi folk and disco rock….”. Winners of the Yorkshire Gig Guide award for ‘Outstanding Live Band’ in 2014. Their genre busting mix glides easily from sweet stunning vocal harmonies to complex blissed out grooves; punctuated by echoing banjo, shimmering mandolin, spooky brass and captivating vocal melodramas.
To round of the evening of musical bliss are the ever popular Holy Moly and the Crackers whose “gypsy folk and roll” has led them to sessions on BBC Introducing and Mike Harding’s radio shows. Having toured the UK and beyond, they are making an impact on both the national and international circuits with their energetic and anarchic live show. Holy Moly and the Crackers are influenced by an eclectic range of styles and artists; the honest grit and gravel of Woody Guthrie, the gypsy bone-cage burlesque of Gogol Bordello, the spectral clarity of Joni Mitchell: They play a lively mix of Romani, Americana and contemporary British folk-rock.
To sample just a few of the acts that can be later seen over the festival weekend, get along to this taster session at the increasingly popular East Riding Theatre, which is fast becoming an all year round musical hub for Beverley, as well as East Yorkshire’s only professional theatre.
