Gate to Southwell festival near Kirklington welcomes more people than ever before

What started as a small pub festival in Upton grows to welcome international and home-grown acts and continues to thrive year after year.

Running for its 17th year, Gate to Southwell saw more than 5,000 in and out of the premises for the four days of music, entertainment and fun.

From Thursday (July 4) until Sunday (July 7), the site near Kirklington, boasted over 60 international artists performing across four stages and sold more tickets than ever before.

The charity festival, which reinvests the money each year to organise a bigger and better festival specialises in Americana roots and acoustic folk music.

This year it welcomed multi-Grammy award-winning Folk Roots and Americana star, Rhiannon Giddens.

One of the biggest names to ever perform at the festival, the star who guested on Beyonce’s recent 400 million streaming ‘Texas Hold ‘Em’ single, filled the premises on Saturday evening.

Len Brown, one of the organisers of the festival said: “We are different, we have got a specific sort of niche and there aren’t many folk festivals that survive, which is quite sad.

“This festival is a community thing and great for families, we have plenty of entertainment and people come in from the surrounding area and we want to grow it, we have a very loyal audience.

“People should expect to be part of a great community experience, there will be fantastic music and we are already looking at bigger bands each year.

“We are sticking to our genre because that is what makes us unique, but we might go slightly more country and Western because there is a big demand for it right now.”

From toddlers to elders, the festival will see everyone dancing, talking and singing together in the rural environment which is just in between the M1 and A1.

Some of this year’s acts include The Fugitives from Canada, Manran and Blue Rose Code from Scotland, Charm of Finches from Australia, Daoiri Farrell from Ireland, Suntou Susso from Gambia, The Haar from Ireland and Lizzie No from New York.

Len added: “It is quite difficult to get the right acts and make money out of it.

“We want to grow it and it is strange coming out of COVID because we could have gone bust like many other small festivals during the COVID period, but we were lucky.

“Brexit has made it difficult for bands to tour so there are fewer bands coming into the country so we try to take chances on bands and this year we stepped up a bit and hopefully next year will be even better.”

With a variety of names across the four stages over the four days, but workshops, comedy, campfire sessions, games, crafts stalls and a variety of food and drink vendors.

Janet Worrell, of East Yorkshire, is visiting the festival for a second year. She said: “I am loving the festival, I think it was really well organised, I love the acts.

“For me and my friend, it was a great thing two years ago and decided to do it again.

“It is just such a safe environment and that is very special.”

Roy Wild, of Beverly, said: “It is my fourth time here and I think it is just a lovely festival with a great feel to it, great for families and varied selection of music, very very good.”

Justin Baker-Smither, who has been going to the festival for 15 years said: “It is a great family festival, I bring my children and it is always an awesome festival with a lot of great music on and very friendly and safe.

“We will definitely keep coming.”

His daughter, Florence Baker-Smith, aged 15, has been visiting the festival since birth and intends to continue to do so for the next few years.

Whilst the majority of people who visit the festival are from the surrounding area, Gate to Southwell sees many people travelling miles to hear the acts and meet up with friends.

The first night of the festival was headlined by Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening from Northumberland and award-winning Dartmoor-based duo Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, but also showcased some of the best acts in the East Midlands including Starscreen, Littlewolf, The Terrible Parents, Julia Waldron, Porterhouse, The Levy Circus and the acclaimed duo Malc Slater and Rhydian Wyn.

Starscreen headlined The Frontier Stage purveying “good old fashioned dirty rock and roll”, while Rochdale’s Julia Waldron has been branded “the Mae West of Folk and Americana”, with exceptional ‘shoot from the hip’ singer-songwriting skills inspired by the likes of Gretchen Peters, Boo Hewardine, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.

Leicestershire band Porterhouse returned to the festival following their star turn last year to play original Americana influenced folk-roots material alongside covers, and from even closer to home are Southwell-based cello and acoustic guitar songwriting duo The Terrible Parents.

The festival also provided plenty of family entertainment such as Dan The Hat, Fit Up Street Circus, Becky Bops, Mark Fraser of Walk The Lines, music workshops and ceilidh, family yoga, Festival Fairies, arts and crafts, face painting, multi-sensory activities, outdoor games, and music by Paul Carbuncle.