aaamusic | On 08, Mar 2012

Two of folk’s finest female performers will bring a burst of Celtic class to the 2^nd Bristol Folk Festival next May.

 

Both multiple award winners, Ireland’s Cara Dillon and Scotland’s Karine Polwart are among the most esteemed artists on the acoustic scene.

 

Honey-voiced Dillon – and guests to be announced – will be the headline act at the revived three-day festival on Sunday, May 6 while singer songwriter Polwart will appear with her Trio on the opening day (Saturday, May 5).

Cara is also patron of Bristol Folk Festival’s sister event, the inaugural Frome Folk Festival, which takes place in her Somerset home town next February.

Born in County Kerry in 1975, she is a spellbinding performer who has been described as “one of the best Irish female singers of all time.”

Her album Hill of Thieves won the Best Album title at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards while Cara was named Best Female Singer in the 2011 Spiral Awards.

• See Cara performing The Verdant Braes of Skreen from Hill of Thieves which won Best Album at the 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzbI1R5mpGI (spot Kevin “Inspector Lewis” Whateley among the audience!)

A former member of folk supergroup Equation, Cara has toured all over the world, including Japan. She is now most often seen on stage with her husband, keyboard player Sam Lakeman.

Brought up in an area steeped in Irish traditional music, Cara now mixes both traditional and original songs in her captivating repertoire. Never in a Million Years from her album After The Morning was playlisted on Radio 2. Cara has also featured on the BBC Radio 2 Radio Ballads and recorded the official 2009 Children In Need single All You Need Is Love alongside Peter Gabriel, Sir Terry Wogan, Hayley Westenra and others at Abbey Road Studios. Last year Cara sang the opening song Summer’s Just Begun for Disney’s Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue as well as narrating the opening sequence.  www.caradillon.co.uk

Like Cara, Karine is also now a mother to young children and has recently made a return to the scene. Following the release of her acclaimed fourth album This Earthly Spell in 2008 she has had a new baby, a stint of radio presenting and rewarding collaborations with Lau and The Burns Unit.

 

Karine’s politics and philosophy studies at university and subsequent work in women’s and children’s rights have informed her songwriting.A passionate and perceptive performer and a fine singer songwriter, Karine , as Word Magazine says, “takes the heart to places few singers even know exist.” She has just released her first DVD Where Tomorrow Starts and will be showcasing tracks from her fifth studio album at Bristol, just ahead of its summer 2012 release.

Her debut album Faultlines won three awards at the 2005 BBC Folk Awards, including Best Album. Its follow up, Scribbled in Chalk (2006), included the moving Daisy, bringing her another BBC Folk Award for Best Original Song in 2007.

Says Polwart: “For me music is one of the most powerful ways of making sense of the world. It’s for celebrating, grieving, sharing, wondering. Nothing inspires me more than the realisation that any one of my songs means something to someone else”. www.karinepolwart.com/

Karine will be joined on the Colston Hall stage by her brother Steven Polwart (guitars, ukelele, vocals) and Fair Isle accordionist and vocalist Inge Thomson. See Karine performing at the 2011 Barnsley Acoustic Festival www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4itaVKWyIo&feature=related

Polwart and Dillon will be a big draw for Bristol Folk Festival, which was brought back to the city after an incredible 32 years this year.

 

Confirming its place on the UK festival calendar, the festival will be buzzing in Bristol over the early May Bank Holiday (May 5-7)-a guaranteed “rain free” event as it returns to one of the city’s flagship venues, the Colston Hall.

 

Organisers have already announced that another headliner will be powerhouse band, and 2010 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards double winners, Show of Hands, in a year that will see Steve Knightley and Phil Beer celebrating 20 years of their incredible partnership that has put them right at the top of British folk.

 

Together with regular double bass player Miranda Sykes, singer songwriter Knightley and multi-instrumental wizard Beer will mark their milestone year with a fourth return to the Royal Albert Hall next Easter before heading to Bristol to headline the festival’s first day on Saturday, May 5.

 

Family tickets are £200 (2 adults and two children aged 5-15) but under 5s go free. Book via Colston Hall box office on 0117 922 3686 or online at www.colstonhall.org

Those wanting to camp for the festival will be able to stay just a minute’s walk from the venue at the impressive St Mary-on-the-Quay church. The church in Colston Street will welcome campers to its hall for just £12 a night (*under 15s accompanied by a responsible adult are full price but under 5’s go free.) Camping tickets are available from the Colston Hall box office.

As well as up to 40 top acts, the festival will feature Morris dancers, mummers and maypoles, ceilidhs, workshops, singalong sessions, a market and “posh loos”!

Bank Holiday Monday headliners will be announced soon together with a raft of top notch acoustic performers, including 2012 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards nominees.

More information at www.bristolfolkfestival.com