LIVE UPDATES: Hundreds flock to Leigh Folk Festival

5:54pm Saturday 23rd June 2012 in News

Crowds enjoy a traditional folk performance Crowds enjoy a traditional folk performance

HUNDREDS of music lovers flocked to the annual Leigh Folk Festival.

Mixing familiar favourites and new talent, the 21st festival saw performers spread across the Library Gardens and the cobbles of Old Leigh from Thursday to Sunday.

In celebration of the Olympic Sparks Will Fly cultural gathering in Southend, the festival provided a satellite Shangri-La event in Warrior Square.

Folk legend Martin Carthy topped the bill of performers, along with Danny and the Champions of the World, Brentwood singer Darren Hayman and Sharron Kraus.

Crowds also gathered for dancing displays by the Maureen Corr Irish Dancers, Chelmsford Folk Dancers and Cockleshell Clog.

*TWO PAGE PICTURE SPECIAL IN MONDAY'S ECHO.

Tweets from Leigh Folk Festival

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Comments(7)

Terry2says says...
6:08pm Sat 23 Jun 12

Sounds absolutely fantastic, cant beat a a bit of folk music as they used to listen to while sitting at greenham common, all they needed was Peter Paul and Mary and the spinners ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

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StuckInTraffic says...
6:15pm Sat 23 Jun 12

I didn't even know it was happening, has it been advertised anywhere.

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heartbeat says...
1:53am Sun 24 Jun 12

StuckInTraffic wrote:
I didn't even know it was happening, has it been advertised anywhere.
I DID know it was happening but (as per my rant on the article about the Carnival) it had to be a toss up between the Carnival or Leigh Folk Festival as the times clashed completely. I really wanted the Festival but "duty called" so I did the Carnival....GREAT planning Southend Council!! Driving from one to the other, finding parking spaces and paying for them to catch the end of events was really not an option.

Oh and I was baffled about the Sparks Will Fly logo, which meant nothing whatsoever to me and still means nothing to me apart from now knowing it is "something" to do with the Olympics....prey do tell what on earth is the "Shangri La" tag for? Answers on a postcard anyone?

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UK Fan says...
10:10am Sun 24 Jun 12

Both event were actually advertised in the 'Outlook' magazine, on the visitsouthend.co.uk website and in huge banners along Chalkwell Park. I do agree though, more could have been done by maybe putting up a few posters in town.

Still, it had been advertised, it would have been a matter of heading to the tourist info website, which isn't that hard to do.

The event was great and the weather held, which was nice. Always a good time out going up to old Leigh for this.

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Chairman Meow says...
7:16pm Sun 24 Jun 12

@heartbeat "Shangri La" is an acoustic night at the Railway Hotel, run by the same guy who put together the Warrior Square gig.

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Leigh - Guy. says...
11:02pm Sun 1 Jul 12

It was a great event, great atmosphere and great shows.

I hear that 31k people turned up..

Put a note in your diary for next year.. I have

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DCLEIGH says...
9:48am Mon 16 Jul 12

This event was over 3 weeks ago.
Please stop looking so amateur and make an effort with this website.

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