"...one of the county’s best weekends of music." - Oxford Mail

Folk Weekend Oxford 2021

Friday 16th - Sunday 18th April 2021

The Show will go on. Watch this space!

March and April 2020 was a whole new experience for the FWO Committee and our fabulous partners. In the space of 5 weeks we moved our festival on-line and our audiences had the opportunity to enjoy two and a half days of glorious folk music streamed into the comfort of their living rooms.

Since then we have continued that success with our #LiveToYourLivingRoom events, offering the chance to buy tickets to watch top class folk musicians, streaming live from their own homes, on a weekly basis into the homes of our audience. We have ensured that our concerts are as near as possible to those 'old-fashioned' in-venue events pre-COVID; with professional sound engineering, comperes to introduce and run the events, audience participation and a chance to show appreciation for the music with applause and interaction. We are proud that we have played a huge part in supporting our folk musicians during this unprecedented time, allowing them both the opportunity to do what they love, to an audience, and earn some much-needed income.

Those amazing Zoom concerts have now moved over to our new, sister organisation - #LiveToYourLivingRoom. Head to their website https://livetoyourlivingroom.com/ for information on some wonderful upcoming concerts.

Ox Local Folk Takeover

Whilst we are planning for FWO 2021, we are offering live music here too. Please see our What's On page for details of our forthcoming FWO Zoom concert and information on our Oxfordshire Local Folk Takeover live performances via our Facebook page.

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Introducing our patrons

We are delighted to have two outstanding local folk artists as our festival patrons; Jackie Oates has been with us since 2013, and she was joined in 2016 by John Spiers, of Bellowhead and Spiers and Boden.

Jackie is a singer and fiddle player hailing from Staffordshire and now living in Oxford. Her unique treatment of English ballads and songs, and pure, haunting singing style has attracted increasing attention. Since appearing as a finalist in the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Awards 2003, she has performed extensively at festivals and folk clubs across the country, in a solo capacity and with a number of bands. Her second album 'The Violet Hour' was one of the Top 10 on the Mojo folk album of the year chart in 2008, followed by 'Hyperboreans' reaching number five in the chart the following year. Also in 2009 Jackie won two BBC Folk Awards - The Horizon Award for best new comer, and the Best Traditional Track Award. She is currently singing with her own band, and touring as a member of The Imagined Village alongside Eliza Carthy. When not busy with all this Jackie dances with Summertown Morris and knits a lot!

John Spiers, known better in folk circles as Squeezy, has made a name for himself as one of the leading squeezebox players of his generation. Well known for his long-standing duo partnership with Jon Boden in the formidable Spiers & Boden as well as his contribution to the massively popular Bellowhead, John has also played with Eliza Carthy’s Ratcatchers and a number of local folk-dance bands.

John was born in Birmingham, but moved to Abingdon in Oxfordshire at an early age where his association with the traditional folk music and dance of the region began. His road to success all started when he met Jon Boden at a folk session in the Fir Tree pub on Iffley Road in the late 90s; by 1999 they started performing together as Spiers & Boden and were quickly signed to Fellside records. 2004 saw the duo join 9 other friends to create the explosive ‘Bellowhead’ who have cooked up a storm on festival stages UK wide ever since. Bellowhead went on to win several BBC Radio 2 folk awards for Best Live Act and Best Group, and their album 'Revival' entered the UK album charts at number 12, before they sadly parted ways in 2016.

Merch!

We had some amazing SPECIAL EDITION festival merch available for the 2020 lockdown festival. They are still available if you want a momento of that unique weekend - click here to browse!

Folky Fundraisers

We have a number folky fundraisers throughout the year - from Christmas Concerts and workshops to Family Ceilidhs. Supporting Folk Weekend whilst having a fabulous time - what could be better?!

Support Folk Weekend as you Shop!

An easy way of supporting Folk Weekend without costing you a penny! Once you have registered with Easyfundraising, every time you shop online a small donation will be made towards Folk Weekend by the participating retailers. If you ever needed an excuse to go shopping then here it is! Sign up with Easyfundraising now!

Morris at Folk Weekend

In normal times we are always delighted to welcome Morris dancers to Folk Weekend, who perform in the streets and at fantastic locations across the City centre including the Botanic Gardens and the Ashmolean Museum. Things are a litte different at the moment, but Morris will return. For more information, go to our Morris page.