Oxford Folk Festival

The sixth Oxford Folk Festival will be held on Friday 20th Saturday 21st
and Sunday 22nd March 2009 at venues across the city.

Oxford Town Hall is the focus for some fantastic concerts featuring Kate
Rusby performing on this occasion with Donald Grant and the Red Skies
String Ensemble, the ever popular Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain,
bhangra kings the Dohl Foundation, multi award winning local duo Spiers
and Boden, Lau who won this years Best Group at the BBC2 Folk Awards ,
Robert Maseko and the Congo Beat and a host of other artists on two
separate stages, as well as hosting the festival Box Office, Craft Fair
and Bar.

Additional concerts and workshops will be in the Holywell Music Room,
including ‘A Bit of a DO’ on Saturday night where poet Bernard
O’Donaghue will be joined by Mick Henry and other musicians for a
captivating evening of Irish music and verse.

For those who like to dance there will be ceilidhs at Oxford Brookes
Main Hall on Saturday night with the Cock and Bull Band, the Newman
Rooms on Sunday with the Oxford Fiddle Group and The Real Bach Consort
from Oxford’s twin city of Bonn and at the Marston Ferry Rugby Club
with the John Mason School Band.

There will also be a wealth of free outside entertainment centered on
the Castle site, with over 40 Morris sides dancing there and elsewhere
in the city over the weekend, starting with a grand parade from the
Castle to Cornmarket Street on Saturday morning. The Castle will also be
the home of the children’s activities in the Key Learning Centre, part
of Oxford Unlocked.

For the first time this year the Festival is also welcoming performances
from local choirs. Over 15 school choirs will be taking part, together
with local celebrities the Blackbird Leys Choir who featured in Channel
5’s Singing Estate programme in 2006, and the Oxford Folk Festival’s
very own choir, Rising Voices. Concerts at the Oxford Castle and the
Holywell Music Room on Saturday will be free, with a grand gala concert
by selected choirs in the Town Hall on Sunday morning.
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Tickets are available from Tickets Oxford, phone 01865 305305 or
We Got Tickets or in person from the Oxford Playhouse (a booking fee may be payable).

For more information go to www.oxfordfolkfestival.com