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We want to hear your views of the festival! Below are some of the comments we've been sent so far - many thanks to everyone who submitted their thoughts. If you have anything to add, go to our form and submit your views
Once again the main festival was cracking, or so I hear. By main festival I mean the one where you listen to the bands on stage. I lunched out on that mostly due to the weather and aching head but also because the campsite music is a strong contender for purists. Johnny Crescendo's punch and potatoes party was absolutely heaving this year! Renditions of all the famous Trad folk songs and lots of blue grass were intermingled with comedic variations on Simon and Gurfunkels 'The Boxer' and acapella drunken slurs on recently popular music.
The canopy I tagged on to (as last and the year before etc etc) was once again a beautifully friendly and considerate place. Greatly increased in numbers by the addition to our ranks of friends of friends and random wanderers (no doubt seeking toilets in the dark and stumbling upon us). One such lost lonely soul gave us a highly amusing rendition of Purple Haze (in Japanese) shouting 'everybody!' when reaching the chorus.
This was obviously the highlight of my fest as I am still chuckling now. To all future Cambridge folk festival attenders my advice is to take a wander round the campsites after the stages have closed and should you wish set yourselves down by a lantern lit singaround do so.
Beware you may be expected to produce a musical offering (and perhaps also BYOB is a good idea) but the happy campers will welcome you with open arms. (By Friday they tend to have run out of songs!)
Lizzie K., Chinton
I've been enjoying the festival for 21 years and haven't missed one. This year was equally as good apart from the weather!!
What I could not understand was why there was concern for the low chairs being used in the marquees. If it was a safety issue then cool boxes, picnic hampers etc. should also be banned. If it was due to space then sitting on a low chair allowed for items to be stored beneath. In fact I was in a group of six and the space we occupied was less than a couple (who applauded every time a chair announcement was made) were using with their blanket as they were stretched out on it with their belongings around them. Can someone tell me what all the fuss was about? In 21 years I’ve had several low chairs specifically for Cambridge and seen no problems. Also why are they being sold on site? (as they are every year).
Mike Stead, Horton Kirby
Once again a great festival, despite the weather. A highlight for me, away from the performances, was the Singing and Harmonies workshop led by Karine Polwart. Being in a group of maybe 50 people singing 6-part harmonies was a fantastic experience and left a buzz that lasted all day. Repeat please next year!
John Herridge, from Back 'ome!
Well, what can I say. It was my first ever Folk Festival, and apart from the down pour I loved every minute of it. My only regret is not seeing the Indigo Girls and The Be Good Tanyas, Kate Rusby was just superb it was nice to see the whole band.
Thank you for a great day out.
Robin, Peterborough
General congratulations on line-up & balance of programme this year, also for the way that the staff prevented the site from becoming a total mudbath. On the downside, the men's toilets on the Coldham's Common campsite were very nasty. Also the prices in the restaurant were at least 100% up on last year. e.g. two quid for a mug of cocoa masquerading as hot chocolate.
Dom Bonito, Saffron Walden
No-one seems to have mentioned the magnificent Malinky so far - they were the only band I saw play twice during the weekend (and would have gone back for more if I hadn't sunk into the mud!) Great voices, wonderful songs and the new CD hasn't been out of my walkman since I got home. A real breath of fresh air in a folk scene where the most popular new singers are girlie not gutsy!
Sarah, Barnet
We didn't make it to Cambridge this year and have been greatly disappointed that the BBC coverage has not so far lived up to expectations.
It is bad enough that the BBC only seems to recognise folk music for this one weekend a year (aside from Mike Harding's token one hour a week) but I find it sad that so little of the coverage featured traditional music from the UK. Instead it majored on US music, singer-songwriters and world music. I've just returned from two weeks in Canada and their mainstream radio shows are full of good local traditional music. Why are we so ashamed of our musical heritage?
The lowpoint of the coverage was Stuart Maconie's Friday night show. I assume he had never been to a folk festival before as he kept going on about how strange it was and the show consisted mainly of non-folk records interspersed (or on one occasion simulataneously) with short contributions from festival artists. This was hardly a good advertisement for the festival or folk music in general.
Ian West, Leicester
On the subject of chairs, I, like a lot of other people, bring a small (6" off the ground) chair to Cambridge. I'm 50 and do not camp due to a gammy leg so have to stay on the festival site all day. I could not stand for the best part of 12 hours, nor could I sit on the grass (or in the mud!) for that time. I suspect that at least half of your audience is in their 40s and 50s and feel the same. I try to take up as little space as possible with my chair and my rucksack goes underneath. For the first half of the day there is plenty of room for chairs in the tents and then when things get crowded in the evening I put the chair away and stand or dance for the last 4 hours or so. There are, however, people who come in with their friends and mark out their territory by spreading out huge groundsheets and sit in a circle (or worse in a line so no-one can get past) all day, often disappearing for hours, leaving perhaps one person spread over 3 blankets to guard their territory! This is annoying and gives us chair sitters a bad name!
Then they come back, usually drunk) and shout through the acts that some of us have waited 5 hours to see (during Kate Rusby's act the circle of women behind us were drinking tequilla slammers at the tops of their voices!)
I think if you enforced a ban on seats, many people of my generation would not come. Many of the smaller festivals provide seating - impossible at Canbridge, I know, so we need our small chairs.
While we're banning people, can I make the following suggestions: tall men or women with huge heads/hats/BIG hair/silly hair/small children on their shoulders should not be allowed to stand in front of little people like me!
See you next year?
Chris Murray, Cannock
I was very disappointed by this year's Festival. I'm sorry to say that it has become just another festival, and not a very good one at that! The weather didn't help, but the moron up on stage with the microphone shouting out 'let's hear it for all those people out in the rain' really didn't help. If Cambridge clashes with WOMAD next year as it has in previous years, I know where my tent and I will be heading.
Kevin Monahan, Saudi Arabia
Best of luck to all at the festival. I appeared at the 1971 gig with my partner John Walter and Gustafus Chuckleberry as Sparrow - the high point of my folk career. John passed away recently with the big C and I have Emphysema - the singers nightmare - so my chords are now inhibited but I send my regards to all from Sparrow. If any one remembers us, thanks! I still write if anyone wants folk lyrics. "Viva la Steeleye!"
Brian F. Billen, Salisbury
Once more Cambridge is almost ruined by those people who insist on bringing in outdoor chairs. We were told explicitly not to bring them - safety reasons and despite security best interests it still happened. Why? If an emergency did happen (thank God it didn't) then I can't bear to think of the consequences.
The only way to stop people bringing in chairs is stop merchandisers selling them on site. Or worse still letting security stop people entering with them. This matter is getting increasingly worse every year - when will people learn.
Power Jen, East Midlands
Joe Strummer was THE best act on Saturday... he's lost none of his energy or political ideals. It was great hearing the old Clash songs mixed with his ecclectic array of new songs from his mescaleros!! We've seen him at Bristol last year and we was even better up close and loud!!
Louis Page, Chepstow
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