Let’s tick the box straight away – this was an excellent Cropredy, but then again, why would it not be? Cropredy has always been splendid… and it’s never changed a winning formula. Over the year’s it’s got bigger certainly, but the ethos, the motivation, the focus on excellence and quality have simply, stubbornly, remained rock solid throughout its thirty something glorious years. If ever a festival realised the merits of ‘Keep it simple, stupid!’ it’s Cropredy. You get one stage, in one field, a bar and stalls and that, well, is pretty much it. This. Is. A. Good. Thing. It’s remarkably liberating and relaxing to be left to your own devices occasionally without the overwhelming immersion and distractions of the modern festival experience.

The infrastructure and supporting organisation are pretty much benchmark stuff too; the general facilities were faultless and a reminder to lesser events that yes, you can host 20,000 people in a field for three days and still maintain first class standards. Festival goers appreciate all this – it feeds that sense of wellbeing that permeates all things Cropredy. It all adds to the sense of community; the band themselves strive to remove any perceived barriers between artist and audience and can frequently be seen around the site (well, around the bar mainly) chatting to their 20,000 friends. Cropredy is like one big collective group hug.

There is more to the label ‘Fairport’s Cropredy Convention’ than mere wordplay. For many in the audience it has indeed become a ‘convention’; an annual opportunity to meet and meld with like-minded gentle souls. Fairport the band are part of it of course, but there is a much deeper, primordial thing going on here in this field in Oxfordshire. It’s a meeting of kindred’s – all ages, all backgrounds, from all over the planet … they flock to Cropredy to become part of a collective, transient, fragile universe where, for three days in August, all is well with the world.

But don’t for a moment think that Cropredy is an annual bash for aging hippies! This really is a diverse audience where whole generations of families share in the glorious community vibe. To experience Cropredy is to confirm to oneself that musical in general, and specifically ‘folk’ in all its wonderful creative guises, is alive and positively thriving for both watcher and player. No better moment symbolised this than when Fairport’s early doors acoustic set was joined on stage by the excellent Joe Broughton’s Conservatoire Folk Ensemble – all 43 of them! To witness the granddaddies and founders of Folk-Rock sharing a stage with so many talented and enthusiastic young folk musicians was truly life affirming and certainly brought a lump to this reviewer’s throat. And that was just the start of it.

Fairport finely craft the array of musical talent on show, sometimes pursuing artists for years, to personally concoct a mix of sheer musical excellence each year … no matter what time in the schedule there are no fillers here. 2014 had a distinctly ‘Prog’ feel to events – witness Steve Hackett – Genesis Extended, The Australian Pink Floyd Show, and Marillion, coupled with a bevy of class acts of the calibre of The Waterboys, and Al Stewart.

Everyone in the 20,000 sell-out crowd will have their own thoughts and preferences – but here are some vague recollections of what rung FFA’s festival bell…

Thursday night saw said Mr Hackett produce one of (the many) highlights of the festival, and nicely illustrated the musical excellence for which Cropredy artists are renowned. Hackett’s guitar work was simply superb with the band delivering a real prog-rock theatre show. How could it not be with a blindingly brilliant rendition of Supper’s Ready back to back with Watcher Of The Skies for goodness sake. They were followed by an equally splendid Waterboys set. Truly a band of global proportions they had the crowd feeding from their hands long before the ubiquitous The Whole Of The Moon had the entire arena singing along.

Friday kick-started with BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Musicians of the Year winners The Mischa MacPherson Trio to illustrate once more the depth of young folk talent on the scene currently. The young lass has a voice as pure, haunting, and fragile as the driven snow. They simply mesmerised the audience. Manchester’s finest, The Travelling Band, more than justified their return appearance alongside a great Wonder Stuff set before The Australian Pink Floyd Show rolled in to town. I admit to approaching TAPFS with some scepticism – just another tribute band right? Not really. Apart from pulling off an audio-visual treat the band infuse the Floyd material with enough individuality of their own to more than merit the headline spot as accomplished and creative musicians in their own right. Perhaps the stunning back projection sequence of raindrops in puddles was an omen, but the English weather was not kind to our antipodean chums, or the crowd, as the heavens positively opened after what had been a glorious couple of days. It remains a tribute to both band and audience that so many bedraggled souls remained to sing Comfortably Numb at midnight.

Saturday opened with Cropredy stalwart Richard Digance bringing the usual charm and merriment befitting the Saturday morning opener occasion before a great set from Blackbeard’s Tea Party had the joint rocking. A fine balance between folk-rock musical excellence and a lighter jocular element to the lyrics, they again illustrated the depth of quality Cropredy offers throughout the bill. A really fine and entertaining band.

Cropredy Village itself becomes an extension of the festival proper over the weekend (It’s that community thing again) with the village awash with activities to complement, rather than compete with, the arena events. There is a little parallel ‘Fringe’ scene going down. Saturday afternoon was a great vibe with the lanes packed with happy festival goers revelling in the return of the sunshine and listening to the full programme of music on offer in the village boozers. If only every Saturday afternoon down the pub was like this. Marvellous stuff. We elected to sadly miss Leatherat in the Brazenose to hotfoot back to the arena to take in the Cara Dillon set. Surrounded by some fine musicians, not least Sam Lakeman, the set was heavy with tunes from the new Thousand Hearts album. An excellent show; Ms Dillon has a rare talent and the new material appears likely to enhance her growing reputation even further.

Following a Prog-Rock masterclass from Marillion, Cropredy witnessed arguably one of the best performances of many a year, and for this reviewer at least, set of the festival. Over a weekend of awe inspiring performances Al Stewart was simply breath-taking. Accompanied by American multi-instrumental Dave Nachmanoff, Stewart (no mean guitarist himself) simply thrived. The laconic lyrical delivery of Stewart and the Latino fuelled breaks and overlays from Nachmanoff were magnificent. Then it got even better. Tim Renwick, a player and session musician with a CV as long as your arm, who appears to have touched the sides of all things (from The Sutherland Brothers & Quiver to Pink Floyd, to David Bowie and a player with Stewart from the early 1970’s.) joined the duo. It was a veritable acoustic guitar musical feast with each player feeding from and exchanging licks with the other. One of those hairs tingling on the back of the neck moments that makes Cropredy so special. After a Year Of The Cat and Roads To Moscow or two later it was all over too soon. An inspired collaboration and absolute delight. Thank you gents.

The scene was set for Fairport to close the bash. With such a treasure trove of back catalogue material they were always on a winner. Marry this with the introduction of a couple of new songs from their forthcoming album, a covers or two (vis McTell’s Around The Wild Cape Horn), some old classics (vis Matty Groves), some new classics (vis Leslie’s haunting Mercy Bay) and a guest appearance from The Voice’s Sally Barker to render a wonderful Who Knows Where The Time Goes – and our time in The Company Of Giants was sadly over for another year.

It was a wonderful festival – and in what has become the festival world’s equivalent of Auld Lang Syne in homage to friendship past and present - all that remained was the collective bonding (that community thing yet again see) of Meet On The Ledge when band, various members of the weekends artistic cast, audience friends and strangers, join together as one to celebrate life, love, and unity…

… oh, and it had started to rain again – but no one really noticed.

Article by Barrie Dimond

(YouTube clips courtesy of Jeff Cooper )

Same Same But Different: Read the FFA review of Cropredy 2013 including links to an exclusive Simon Nicol interview and a review of Fairport Convention on the road.