With its beautiful cathedral towering majestically above the surrounding countryside, the City of Ely lies in the heart of the Cambridgeshire Fens, famed for spectacular sunsets and the vast open sky. What better location for a weekend of the best in folk music and dance?
Each Ely Folk Festival is better than the last, with an impressive guest list and programme of workshops, concerts, displays, ceilidhs and children's entertainment. The musicians appearing at the Ely Folk Festival reflect the rich diversity of the modern music scene, with a mixture of established favourites and newer talent.
We will be spending more than ever on performers and are especially proud to remain a small, friendly festival. You can meet the artists 'unplugged'. You can take part in workshops, dances, sessions or perform in the Club Tent. And you can get really close to the main stage.
The Folk Festival is based on a single site which includes marquees, camping facilities, food stalls, trade stands, real-ale bar, real toilets, showers, children's entertainment... Ely city centre is accessible by shuttle bus (or 20 minutes' walk). We are in town for Morris displays and pub sessions during the daytime.

In Brief:

Club Tent Bring your instruments sign up to play and perform in the Club tent, your chance to be discovered!

Real Ale Bar Enough guest beers and ciders to tempt the most discerning palate with sessions and singarounds

Childrens' entertainment Saturday and Sunday we have storytelling, juggling, Jan and her amazing blackboard van

We are wheel chair friendly with reserved camping area, marquee area, ramp access to the dance floor, an accessible loo near the main marquee, we have been known to help in putting tents up - please advise when booking

With warmth, humor and understated scholarship, Jeff Warner connects
21st century audiences with the music and everyday lives of 19th century
people. He presents musical traditions from the Outer Banks fishing
villages of North Carolina, to the lumber camps of the Adirondack
Mountains and the whaling ports of New England. His songs have
"the stamp of authority and real experience" (Tykes News,
Yorkshire, UK). He has honed his craft in front of audiences
across the country at festivals, museums, clubs and schools.
His songs, rich in local history and a sense of place,
bring us the latest news from the distant past.

He is an uncompromising writer whose music reveals his love for the un-official history of the English speaking people. With gentle intelligence he weaves the tradition with his own contemporary parables, his writing has been said to share the same timeless quality as Richard Thompson at his best.

"Anyone recovering from a 35-year coma right now might think that the days of Cat Stevens and James Taylor havent really gone at all. Young boho men with acoustic guitars and no fear of baring their souls; Damien Rice, Ray LaMontagne, Ben Harper (dont blame me for listing these types, Jacks own website does it too) its all getting a mite too confessional at times.

Yet why complain? While the format may be getting a little ubiquitous and a little too comfortable its no worse than the umpteenth indie band that sound like they were freeze-dried in about 1982. Quality, as ever will out, and Jacks got it. Its up to us to make sure that we dont push him too fast. At the tender age of 22 hes already got a fine, emotive voice and an undoubted gift for a heart-stopping chord sequence."