Newhampton Arts Centre (NAC) welcomed back audiences and renowned Folk Artists for its first ever outdoor Folk Festival, marking a successful return of live music in Wolverhampton.

Saturday 3rd July saw the first ever outdoor Folk Festival take place in the brand new outdoor covered New Horizons space, situated in the coutyard of the centre. Its a versatile big-top style performance space allowing flexible seating arragements and artists to perform safely in front of a live audience. It was a busy weekend for Newhampton Arts Centre, as staff prepared for the return of audiences, with real ale and hot food provided by No. 5 Catering. Several well-known folk acts took part in the festival, in front of a full complement of folk music lovers, making the event a huge success.

The festival opened with Matt Sayers who was orginally from Wolverhampton and is an Indie folk singer songwriter. His lyrically driven songs accompanied by his acoustic guitar captivated the audience and was a perfect opening for the afternoon’s summer weather.

Next on the programme was the Vera Van Heeringen Trio. Vera was joined on stage by Dave Luke and Andy Seward to produce their very own special brand of Folk/Americana. The audience showed their appreciation of Vera’s faultless skill on the Guitar and Mandolin and they particularly loved the traditional Appalachian classics she played on the violin. It was a wonderful showcase of skill and songwriting.

The trio were followed by Pete Morton. From Leicester, Pete is one of England’s finest singer songwriters. Pete filled the courtyard with his powerful singing voice and fully entertained the crowd with many of his own fiercely creative and entertaining songs.

Headlining the event were Calan who presented their own form of Welsh traditional music with an array of instruments. With Calan’s stunning use of the fiddle, accordion and harp, they wowed the folk fans with energy and beautiful sounds. There was plenty of enthusiastic foot-tapping and they even got everyone to their feet in their final numbers. It was a stunning conclusion to a wonderful day in the setting sun.

The Wolverhampton arts centre was delighted by the response from the audience members. Trevelyan Wright, CEO of NAC said:

“We were thrilled to be able to produce this event with first-class folk artists. The assortment and quality of the music was incredible and it was wonderful to welcome back our folk audience to what was considered to be a really successful day for the centre and live music in the city.”

The festival fun doesn’t stop there, NAC are following up this Folk Festival with their very own Jazz Festival. Before doors temporarily closed for COVID-19, The Wolverhampton Arts Centre had been delivering a successful Jazz programme ‘JAZZ at NAC’ with some of the worlds renowned Jazz musicians such as trumpeter Steve Fishwick and pianist Zoe Rahman. The Jazz Festival, taking place on Saturday 31st July will welcome Ant Law, Critically acclaimed MOBO nominated saxophonist, Camilla George, Tina May and the BBC Jazz Award winning Julian Siegel Quartet to the New Horizons stage.

All tickets and further information for the upcoming Jazz festival can be found online at http://www.newhamptonarts.co.uk/jazz-at-new-horizons/