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The West Dorset Magazine, July 29, 2022
Culture
International flavour to folk festival International stars are set to descend on Purbeck Valley Folk Festival for four days of magic, set on farmland near Swanage from August 18 to 21. Headliners include Mexican party band, Los de Abajo, along with Guinea’s N’Famady Kouyaté, a master of the balafon – the traditional wooden xylophone from West Africa, and Gasper Nali from Malawi, who serves up Afro Beats from his one-string, home-made three-metre long Babatoni bass guitar. There is also a big helping of Americana/country from Amethyst Kiah, The Once, Laura Cortése & the Dance Cards and Dana Wylie. This year marks the return of global stars to the festival’s five stages after the pandemic prevented them attending last year. The festival also features English folk royalty – top roots duo Show of Hands. Other stars include veteran Scottish big band Shooglenifty, Radio 2
GOING TO BLAZES: The breath-taking Pantheatrix
favourite Kathryn Williams, BBC Folk Award winning Rionnagh Connelly with her funkfolk band Honeyfeet, supergroup Magpie Arc and flute/whistle and uilleann pipes maestro Michael McGoldrick’s band. Tickets for the festival – set on a farm with views across Corfe Castle and the Swanage Steam railway running alongside – are selling fast. Festival director Catherine
Burke said: “We are so glad to be back in full flow for PVFF22. Our incredible line-up would do justice to any folk festival and we are especially pleased to welcome back our international artistes. “Purbeck Valley Folk Festival is set on a unique and compact farm arena with professional stages in barns. It’s a little farm so it doesn’t take you ages to walk from one stage to the other, and it’s always easy to find your friends.”
Children’s activities include storytelling, theatre workshops, fun crafts, puppet shows, bubble displays, baby/toddler rhyme time sessions, facepainting, a treasure hunt, bouncy castles, fancy dress, maypole dancing and Morris dance workshops. And all kids’ activities are free – included in the ticket price, so there are no hidden costs. And for musical kids there are youth music workshops and ‘Come and Try’ instruments try-outs which allow youths and adults the opportunity to try out instruments that they might not get a chance to otherwise without having to invest in them first. Tickets are on sale now from £150 (£75 youth/£30 child) for the weekend Thursday to Sunday, including camping. Any remaining tickets sold at the gate will be £165/£85/£30 n See purbeckvalleyfolk festival.co.uk/shop/tickets
More rock and more ribs as festival REVIEW Rock n Ribs Festival Wincanton Racecourse By MIRANDA ROBERTSON
SHOCKIN’: Double denim alert at Rock n Ribs
Having visited Rock n Ribs when it was held in Dorset last year, I can confirm the move to Somerset has massively paid off. More space, more to do and it just feels… more festivally. Organisers Bearfoot productions laid on a feast
COOKIN’: It’s a car-becue
for metalheads, with tributes to more top rock bands than you could shake a Harley at, scores of gleaming American vintage cars and bikes, lots of Yankee scran on offer and even stalls where you
could buy yet more denim, assuming you were not already fully kitted out already. A full three days and nights of entertainment was scheduled this year and the plethora of bands executed their sets impeccably – the Nirvana and Guns & Roses acts seeming to particularly energise the crowd. Queues were long but swift, and there was
