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It has paid for the refurbishment of the Memorial Hall a couple of times since that inaugural festival, as well as many other facilities in the village, while Heap is proud of its green philosophy, recycling 85 percent of the waste, and contributions to charity, underlining its credentials as a safe and friendly family event whose appeal goes well beyond the conventional folk world.
Cambridge City Council took an extraordinary leap of faith when they decided to stage a folk festival in 1965 and asked Ken Woollard, a left-wing fireman, to put it together. More of a jazz and classical music fan than folk, he had little idea how to go about it. But he learned fast, assembling a bill that included the Clancy Brothers, Pete Sayers, Hedy West, Cyril Tawney, Stan Kelly, the Strawberry Hill Boys and – belatedly after a lot of outside pres- sure – Paul Simon.
“His agent said ‘We have this great folk singer over from the States, you can’t do without him’,” recalled Woollard at the festi- val’s tenth anniversary. “By then I’d spent all my pennies so I said we couldn’t book him. I hadn’t really heard Paul Simon then anyway. They sent down a single of I Am A Rock which didn’t impress me a great deal, then the record company rang and the publishers rang and this went on for several days until the agency said we could have him for £15. I didn’t even have that but I told them I’d book him if they took out a page of advertising for £14. They agreed.”
A 500-seater marquee was hired, a small, rickety stage was constructed, a primitive sound system with cabinet speakers erect- ed on scaffold poles was set up and 1,200 people paid £1 each for a weekend ticket. The first festival lost money but not a sufficient- ly damaging amounts to dissuade the Council from asking Wool- lard to repeat the experiment the following year.
Woollard was never constrained by artistic agendas or what others might construe as folk music. Some of his most triumphant bookings included Odetta, Reverend Gary Davis, Paco Peña, Davey Graham, Jean Ritchie, Patrick Sky, Ry Cooder, Stephane Grappelli, John Cooper Clarke, Rockin’ Dopsie, Butch Hancock, Jim Croce, Michelle Shocked, John Sebastian, Memphis Slim and all.
His eclectic approach was fully adopted and broadened even more widely by Eddie Barcan when he assumed the mantle of director after Ken’s death in 1993. Ask Barcan his favourite Cam- bridge moments and he talks gleefully of Martyn Bennett’s jaw- dropping Hardland set which sent a tent full of cosy Joan Baez fans fleeing for the hills in 2000 (which turned out to be one of his last major performances as he got sick soon afterwards); Nick Cave’s scarily spellbinding murder ballads set in 1999; Julian Cope’s frankly bizarre, rambling performance in 2003 (“he only played about three songs but I thought he was really funny”) and one of Joe Strummer’s last shows before his death in 2002.
Barcan also has a great track record for identifying new artists on the way up, booking the likes of Mumford & Sons, Laura Mar- ling, Noah & The Whale and Jake Bugg at the point they were about to break into mass popular appeal. He takes great pride in the development of newer fringe stages which have encouraged a resurgence of youth performers and audiences alike, while main- taining a policy that half the acts on the bill must have never played the festival before.
“It’s great when you see artists develop through the festival.
Newton Faulkner, who comes back this year, first appeared in a showcase in the club tent and the next year sold a million records. Rachel and Becky Unthank started off doing workshops at Cold- hams Common, then did the club tent, then a showcase, then stage two and eventually played the main stage with the Brig- house & Rastrick Brass Brand. I first met Bella Hardy at the Young Folk Awards and asked her to get involved in the youth side of things and one year she suddenly turned up with a CD. This year she’s doing a choir workshop. She’s part of the family now.”
The Gambian National Troupe at Sidmouth International Festival 1986
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