Popular folk festival run by volunteers returns to Oxford

They needn’t have worried – despite some initial hiccups, it has become a popular annual event, attracting dozens of performers and delighting hundreds of fans.

This year will be no exception as the still volunteer-led and not-for-profit spectacle hits the city next weekend with music, dancing, colour and the jingling of bells.

READ MORE: Oxford Folk Festival pictures

There will be a full programme of indoor concerts and ceilidhs, and musicians, bands, choirs and dancers performing all around the city.

The historic Covered Market remains the hub of the festival, with performances from noon on Friday (April 10) to the evening of Sunday (April 12).

Shoppers, browsers and tourists will be regaled with all kinds of entertainment – a varied programme of folk music, from ancient to modern.

A free evening concert, which has become a tradition of the festival, will be held at the Market on Saturday at 7.30pm, with music from the Abingdon-based Ock Street Band.

A folk fan at Oxford Folk Festival in 2024 (Image: Ed Nix)

Organisers are particularly pleased to be welcoming Aisling, a folk band from Leiden, Oxford’s twin city in Holland.

They will perform at a song and dance evening with the Oxford Folk Dancers at St Matthew’s Church in Marlborough Road, off Abingdon Road, on Friday at 7.30pm, with a ploughman’s supper included.

The six-strong Dutch group will also appear at the North Parade market, the Covered Market and, appropriately, in Leiden Square in the Westgate Centre.

Other festival venues include Broad Street, Bonn Square, St Giles, Radcliffe Square and Oxford Castle, while indoor performances will be held at the Norrington Room in Blackwells, the Old Fire Station, the Westgate library, the Weston Library at the Bodleian and Modern Art Oxford.

As one of the organisers says: “There is plenty on offer to lift the spirits of everyone.” Full details at oxfordfolkfest.org.uk