That wonderful British festival institution that is Fairport's Cropredy Convention returns to those hallowed Oxfordshire fields 8th-10th August 2024.

In an age of thirty second attention spans, fifteen minutes of fame, trash worshipping, and throw away fashion, Cropredy represents style, substance and permanence. Fairport Convention not only invented a whole new musical genre, but, in their very own Cropredy festival, they have flaunted the fact for more than 40+ years! Greatness simply does not go away. Cropredy is more than just about an iconic band of course, it’s a celebration of the ever burgeoning, and increasingly diverse, ‘Folk’ scene in all it’s glory.

Cropredy continues as one of the flagship events of the English Summer, and rightly so. It so often features the great and good of the ‘Folk’ world. Indeed Cropredy, and Fairport themselves, have been great exponents of widening the whole definition of what Folk, and what a ‘Folk Festival’ actually is. So, expect folk and roots, but also Blues, Pop, Jazz, Rock and all points in-between. Folk is now such a broad church, that these musical boundaries increasingly blur, and Fairport, and their Convention, have been instrumental in driving that change.

The 2024 line-up continues the charge, with artists of the status of Rick Wakeman and Richard Thompson rocking up a storm. Thompson being drafted in as a late replacement for the recovering Trevor Horn. Fairport co-founder Thompson is no stranger to the Cropredy stage of course. He will play a solo acoustic set accompanied by guest vocalist Zara Phillips. Richard will then be joined for the last 3 numbers of his set by Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg.

Let’s not forget that this is Fairport Convention’s own bash – with a couple of performances over the weekend by one the most influential bands of their generation. Remember too that the pubs in Cropredy village host their own ‘Cropredy Fringe’ events, with even more fine bands on offer. It all comes together to produce a great weekend.

The festival itself has been consistently delivering the goodies for decades; so take it as read that the facilities, organisation, and all the other malarkey that constitutes a wonderful weekend are well and truly sorted.

There is still some ticket availability for this year’s bash HERE.

Cropredy is an iconic event, featuring an iconic band and much much else.  Be part of it.

Article by Barrie Dimond