Fairport turns the big four oh with eclectic lineup

Richard Thompson return to Cropredy this year NNL-190716-143413001

Fairport’s Cropredy Convention three-day open-air music festival will celebrate its fortieth anniversary this year with its usual line up of old favourites and surprise newcomers.

Headline acts for this year include The Waterboys who headline the opening Thursday set, Frank Turner, who headlines Friday, with Fairport Convention bringing the festival to a crecesdo with their traditional headlining spot on Saturday.

Other major acts include New York punk-folk ensemble Gogol Bordello, who will play the support slot on Thursday.

Friday sees Seth Lakeman take the stage and guitar maestro, Richard Thompson returns after a year absence.

Gogol Bordello - Credit Daniel Efram NNL-190716-143726001

The line-up also features the soaring harmonies from female ensembles Wildwood Kin and Daphne’s Flight, instrumental virtuosity from harmonica master, Will Pound, accordion virtuoso Eddy Jay and more guitar mastery from Martin Simpson. Classic rock will come from Martin Barre and prog legends Caravan are also appearing.

Lil Jim, Tors, The 4 of Us, Wilson & Wakeman, Richard Digance, Tide Lines and Zal Cleminson’s Sin’dogs complete the line-up.

The festival is also making a couple of changes including the introduction of glamping

More importantly, the festival will continue its quest to tackle the issue of single-use plastic after last year’s successful Drastic on Plastic campaign.

Gareth Williams, director of Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, said: “We saw a dramatic reduction of plastic waste at our festival.

“By issuing free stainless steel water bottles to crew and artists we cut plastic bottles from over 4,500 to under a hundred.

“Our real ale bar also replaced 160,000 plastic glasses with a fully compostable alternative and didn’t issue plastic straws.

He added: “We made similar progress in our backstage catering operation.”

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) estimates 250,000 tents are left at music festivals across the UK.

Many festival-goers believe the tents are collected and given to charity but, claims AIF, the majority go to landfill.

At an average of 3.5kg, each tent is the equivalent of 8,750 plastic straws or 250 cups.

For more information on the artists and to buy one, two or three-day tickets to the festival, visit www.fairportconvention.com.