The Folklincs Folk Festival was held in Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire, in July 2026. Barton isn’t a well-known tourist centre, but it could be – the Humber and its Bridge dominate the skyline, while Barton itself is a historic market town which is situated close to the beginning of the Viking Way, nature reserves et al.
And a splendid festival it was, small but sufficiently splendid that the organisers are already thinking about 2027. The two days were focused around three venues – two of them opposite each other in the centre of Barton and a third in the bar area of the campsite (the local football club).
There was a rather neat distinction between the two central venues. One was an old church with acoustic music – all wood and semi-circular layout; the other was Barton’s Assembly Rooms, plugged in for the artists, plenty of space for dancing. When I called one evening at the campsite, I found the festival was using the decent-sized bar/function room of the football club and there was a rather classy tunes session in progress.
“A classy tunes session” is no surprise if I give a little more background. The north of Lincolnshire has a thriving community set up for traditional music, under the name Folklincs (see the festival web link below, have a flick around the other pages on their website). You’ll find that there’s music, there’s a specific youth focus, there are tabs so you can practice in the week and play in the sessions, there are links to folk history, there is tuition from tutors who are actively performing on the folk scene. If I lived nearer I’d be there every week.
The benefits of this traditional-folk bedrock were played out in the Festival itself. There was space not just for the well-known – Tarren, The Wilsons, Culverake – but for the classy tunes sessions and for the workshops. Dance consisted not only of half a dozen Morris Teams from Lincolnshire and Yorkshire but also ‘Nifty’ – the National Youth Folk Troupe of England (NYFTE) – and Fosbrooks, the Folk Education Trust’s performance teams who play traditional music to accompany their clog dance routines.
The festival has a strong sense of place:
- Kate Witney, Lincolnshire native, performed a unique session of traditional (but especially Lincolnshire) folk songs and introduced them with a knowledge of their origin and history which I suspect is unparallelled.
- Grimsby’s Kirsty Hannah has the kind of clear voicing which should be more widely known;
- she was accompanied for the Festival by Scunthorpe’s Darryl Ebbatson, musician, producer, and founder of Smallcogmusic.
If you add the duos of Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones, Arthur Coates & Kieran Cotterell, Gordon Tyrrall & Barbara Mainland into the mix, you get an overview of The Folklincs Folk Festival: it’s towards the traditional end of the folk spectrum, it’s participative, it builds on the strengths of months and years of quiet, dedicated work to keep folk traditions live and developing.
… and then there’s Tethera, “a trio of traditional musicians who play music from Lincolnshire and beyond”. The three members of Tethera are amongst those who have been at the heart of keeping this festival going in the face of more than the usual challenges the past winter. They are also a trio, formed about a year ago, beginning to draw attention to promoters and festival organisers more widely. Have a look at the video below.
Congratulations to all involved in the Folklincs Folk Festival 2026, I had a great time.
Mike Wistow
Festival webskite: https://www.folklincs.com/folklincs-festival.html
Tethera live – ‘Ukrainian Set’:
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