The Village Pump Folk Festival is returning on 25th – 27th July 2014.

FromeFM will be at the festival recording interviews and even some of the bands LIVE to be broadcast as highlight programmes shortly after. See below for the schedule of highlights.

• Saturday 26th July 4.30pm – Highlights from Fridays acts at the Village Pump
• Sunday 27th July 4.30pm – Highlights from Saturdays acts at the Village Pump
• Saturday 2nd August 9.30pm – Highlights from Sundays acts at the Village Pump

Festival spokesperson Clive Woodland said,

“When we first started over at Westbury, I contacted Frome FM to see if they could give us a bit of publicity.

“Frome has a great music scene of its own but Westbury is very close and I knew a lot of people in the Frome area loved the Village Pump from its days at Stowford, near Trowbridge.

“The FromeFM guys asked me to go and talk about the Festival on one of their programmes and we invited them to come along to see for themselves what the new site was like and to make a programme all about last year’s event.

“This year they asked me to go back again and I did a slot on their Sunday morning breakfast show when they played tracks from some of the acts who are appearing this year. As it happened, Eliza Carthy was playing with her dad Martin at the Cheese and Grain that evening and they had arranged to talk to her on air about the show. I joined in the conversation and she said how much she was looking forward to appearing at the Village Pump Folk Festival.”

Alex takes up the story. He said,

“We’ve interviewed people like Kate Rusby, The Spooky Men’s Chorale, Karine Polwart and Keith Christmas, even Kookie the Clown – one of the entertainers from the Family Tent. We’ve also talked to festival-goers.

“Last year we made an hour-long programme for the station. From a personal point of view, it’s expanded my musical horizons and I’ve discovered a lot about folk music, its origins and how it’s been handed down from one generation to the next.”

This year’s Festival takes place at the White Horse Country Park, Westbury on 25th – 27th July and features some of the country’s best-known folk acts, many of them BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners, such as Seth Lakeman, 3 Daft Monkeys, Eliza Carthy, Steve Knightley, Phil Beer, O’ Hooley and Tidow, The Peatbog Faeries, Martin Simpson and Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin.

They will be performing together with many greats from the last 30 or 40 years, like The Blues Band – featuring former Manfred Mann singer, Paul Jones – Michael Chapman, Martin Carthy and his band Brass Monkey and newer acts such as Foreign Affairs, Gren Bartley, The Willows, The Young ‘Uns and Phil King.

Other attractions include a full Family Programme, an Open Mic and Club Performers’ Tent, a Sessions tent, as well as music workshops, yoga, Tai Chi, Nia and the usual festival stalls and food outlets.

Tickets for this year are available at www.villagepumpfolkfestival.co.uk or at the gates.