For the first time in years, the Hull Folk and Maritime Festival is set to return.
Through no fault of the organisers, the festival will return for the first time since covid. The pandemic took two years away from the festival, and with the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, the festival was cancelled in 2023 out of respect. It was not until a few months ago that organisers decided to bring back this famed festival.
Since being established in 2012, The Hull Folk and Maritime Festival has celebrated Hull's life on the waves. Bringing together artists to Humber Street at the pier of the Humber, the festival has drawn a huge crowd while it was in its prime.
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Organiser Lloyd Dobbs - also a headline act - told Hull Live: "We've had some right good, banging years, really good years where we've had big festivals, multiple stages and people from all over the world performing. The last one we actually did was 2019 because of Covid lockdowns, The Queen passing pushed us not to doing it, and we were disheartened."
This year, Lloyd and fellow organiser Mark Pollard decided that the festival had to return. "We're both performers, and we thought we just need to get our finger out and put it on. This year, we thought we'd get the local folk community back together."
Despite originally planning something more lowbrow, the organiser soon realised the scale of the operations people had grown accustomed with The Hull Folk and Maritime Festival. The festival will feature two stages, dancers and local pubs being involved giving a true folk vibe by allowing people to turn up and perform music, poems, or tales.
The festival carries on a huge tradition of folk in Hull. The history of the festival begins with the establishment of the Folk Union One Club, above Ye Old Blue Bell pub in 1963 by The Watersons. Though they would soon disband, the demand for folk music was still present in Hull. 1990 saw the establishment of the Hull Sea Shanty Festival, which ran under various names until 2011. The first Hull Folk Festival took its place a year later, continuing the legacy and commitment of its roots to championing folk music.
"How we've done it, we've gone to local businesses and local trade union movement. People have put money in, and we've been able to put on a decent festival. We're really excited. We wanted to get it back going again because the idea is that Hull's got a really long maritime and maritime music heritage. For us not to have a folk festival, I think it's criminal really."
All the music, sessions and workshops are free to attend. The festival will be held across August 23-25 at Hull Marina, Victoria Pier with more events held across the city centre. More information, including stage times, can be found on the Hull Folk and Maritime Festival website here.