FAIRPORT’S ‘SLIMMER’ CROPREDY CONVENTION 2025 – Paul Johnson talks to Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg

Fairport's Cropredy Convention

Hi Paul Johnson here, and I like thousands of other people across all ages, not just in the media but in life in general am a huge Fairport Convention fan..

Thankfully, and largely thanks to our relationship with Fairport we’ve built over 35 years or more through the folking.com team and Darren Beech our late and beloved founder I’ve had the privilege, pleasure and some of the most damn right hilarious times with or around Fairport Convention.  Whether booking them to play, for my live radio / radio cafe’s sessions  in my radio days or just meeting up with them and doing interviews with them over more than 35 years now, getting to know this band who are genuinely a folk-rock institution but more importantly they are genuine honest, kind and generous bunch of chaps! Its  been a privilege getting to know and being involved with this band  and I will never take this for granted.

Fairport Convention have been, and still are at the forefront of folk-rock music that spans decades! 

So when we started to hear about the rising costs of their annual Cropredy festival like all music festivals, with the costs of fuel, services, land rentals, contactors, the cost of living crisis and the global and UK down turn in the music industry festival circuits… we all felt a sense of pending doom and sadness that things for this annual festival could be hitting an all time low and soon not be there at all. In fact many, many festivals have sadly just stopped being on… the latest sad case in question The Cambridge Folk Festival,  and so many more have had to threw in the towel.

So Fairport’s Cropredy Convention was never going to be immune to these times and circumstances despite Fairport Convention having thousands of loyal long term fans and supporters of the band and the festival.

No one wanted the Cropredy Festival to fall foul of this.. and be come a victim of these extraordinary times, and no longer be held. No one more so than the band themselves. So in order for this magical festival to thrive again and survive festival director Gareth Williams and the key Cropredy Festival planning team had to come up with some pretty dramatic plans to ensure the festival can still be held, this year and for the future. 

So what’s this trimming all about? How’s it going to work? What will it look like? Can you get your tickets quickly before they all sell out for this slimmed down Cropredy festival 2025?

Join me, Simon Nicol and Dave Pegg to find out more in my mini podcast below.

This mini podcast is split in to three parts – so sit back and enjoy in your own time.

Simon Nicol.

Part 1

Part 2

Part3

 

Dave Pegg.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

 

We all give our spare time to run folking.com. Our aim has always been to keep folking a free service for our visitors, artists, PR agencies and tour promoters. If you wish help out and donate something (running costs currently funded by Paul Miles), please click the PayPal link below to send us a small one off payment or a monthly contribution.