Folk On The Quay Festival

Poole Quay

29th & 30th June 2013

Folk On The Quay is a brand new free Festival for the beautiful seaside town of Poole, created by the Poole Tourist Board with masses of help from local musician Catherine Burke and her army of volunteers.

Catherine and her family run the Bournemouth Folk Club at the Centre Stage in Westbourne as well as the annual Purbeck Folk Festival (www.purbeckfolk.co.uk) in Langton Matravers near Swanage. The festival had four outdoor stages along with seven local pubs all with a massive choice of local talent as well as Folk music stars from around the world. As well as this there was traditional Morris dancing, workshops, music sessions and various activities for all the family. The Festival is situated along the half mile stretch of Poole Quay which provides some amazing, breathtaking views over to the Purbeck hills as well as views of Brownsea Island and Poole harbour.

The event fortunately just happened to fall on one of the hottest weekends of the year and the revellers were blessed with masses of unbroken sunshine on the two days. The programmes were sold for a bargain £2 and gave you all the information that was needed to provide a perfect fun filled weekend of music. There were masses of musical highlights including an very uplifting version of “New York Girls” by headliners Spiers & Boden of the award winning band “Bellowhead”, as well as a very loud piece of “Samba Panache”, a local drumming group that provide the very colourful sights and sounds of a Brazillian Carnival. Just walking around the Quay amongst the many thousands of people, you could feel the very welcoming and relaxed atmosphere that the festival created giving the people a fantastic free day out without the hassle of the mud and camping of a usual festival.

On the Saturday evening Dorset Music Award winning band Fearne entertained a large crowd on the Fish Shambles stage peforming songs from their new album “Songs on Postcards”, as well as an encore of an uplifting cover of The Killers “All These Things That I Have Done” which saw plenty of willing audience participation. Following Fearne was Pachango a Columbian, Spanish and English band that create a big world music sound with a host of influences, their infectious sound had many people old and young up enthusiastically dancing to big tunes such as the flute lead “Warrior” and the superb “Of The Night”.

Pachango 1

The Sunday seemed to be a bit more of a laid back affair with local up and coming band Willowen providing the early afternoon entertainment on the Hobgoblin Stage, with a fantastic set which included their brand new single “My Life’s Mine” which is simply created with a Cajon, a Violin, an acoustic guitar and some perfect harmonious voices. The very well attired Mother Ukers a Bournemouth 3 piece Ukulele band whipped up an excited crowd with a great set featuring some unusual versions of reworked songs including “Step On”, made famous by the Happy Mondays as well as an hilarious version of The Prodigy’s “Firestarter” which had to be seen to be believed. New Milton’s ever popular folk rock heroes, Lady Winwood’s Maggot, packed out the Lord Nelson pub with a full two hour set of Death Western magic that had everybody leaving with massive smiles on their faces.

The event was a massive success with just so much choice from a variety of acts brought together to create this new festival that provides pleasure for so many, with each person having their own unique experience made from their weekend of plenty. It also provided as well as a massive shot in the arm for the Poole Tourism industry bringing lots of holidaymakers to the town for the Festival . It is hoped that this will become an annual event with plans to hold another at the same time next year in the pipeline. Catherine Burke, her family and all the event volunteers must be truly congratulated on an amazing event that ran like a well oiled machine, which seemed to run without a hitch-roll on next year.

Videos