Folk On Green

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Folk On The Green is probably the longest-running free music festival in the country, having been staged every year since 1973. There were two festivals in the first year, so the most recent Folk On The Green was the 37th and took place on Sunday June 14th 2009. Folk On The Green is run by and for the people of Stony Stratford, an historic coaching town in North Buckinghamshire, and takes place on Horsefair Green. Although folk music is an important element of the event, all forms of music are represented;this year from indie acoustic to jazz, from blues to country rock, mostly from musicians local to Stony Stratford and the surrounding area. The slideshow below will give you a flavour of the event and this lovely reflection by Pat Nicholson perfectly sums up what Folk On The Green is all about:

Folk On The Green is a long established musical event which happens every year on a small open area known as Horsefair Green in the pretty town of Stony Stratford in the depths of rural north Buckinghamshire in the (once) United Kingdom. Every year, sometime about the middle of June and always on a Sunday, and only ever when the sun is shining bright and everyone is of extremely good mood and in good voice, crowds of local inhabitants gather on the aforementioned green to celebrate the imminent coming of midsummer. There is always much swigging of wine and ale and the music goes on and on and on and on and on from whence about midday until the Master of Ceremonies is empowered (or more accurately instructed) to call time at round about 7pm. This always varies depending on the accuracy of timepieces employed and, of course, how long the last number of the last band can be made to go on for. The genre of music is predominantly traditional English folk, although, over the years, as many of the original participants have grown long in years and grey in hair (see pictures of participating minstrels), other styles of music have been allowed to infiltrate, it would appear, maybe to ensure that the tradition of this wonderful event does not wither away and die, along with its founding fathers. This particular year, which was the first time I had visited the event in over ten years, was blessed with not only extremely good weather (as always—eat your heart out Glastonbury) but with a particularly good array of musicians up on the stage ranging from traditional folk through country rock, jazz and contemporary pop and on to rock in the form of an extremely good local Pink Floyd tribute band. Stony Stratford means a lot to me, even after all these years. As a small child growing up in the fifties in the nearby village of Whaddon, it was the centre of the universe! There was not at lot else on offer in the confines of this part of post war rural England and I still have a vivid picture in my mind of Saturday afternoons spent shopping in the town, where you could buy just about anything and there was always a queue for the Green ‘un outside Bradshaws, the Newsagents! Even though I now live over 200 miles away, it’s been a pleasure to come back again and join in the fun!

.. The photos in the slideshow are by:
Nico Blasch (http://www.flickr.com/photos/rarorix/sets/72157619656717289/)..
.. Brad Bradstock (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/BradBradstock/FolkOnTheGreenJune14th2009&035;)..
.. Kate Davies (http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=481695863&albumId=404993)..
.. Ian Leyland (http://www.flickr.com/photos/leybald/sets/72157619696236263/)..
.. and Simon St Clare (http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=462698783&albumId=929381)

Please contact the photographers direct for permission to use their images.