FolkEast will pay tribute to one of folk’s favourite performers this August in Saturday night’s ‘The Sartin Singaround’.
Paul Sartin, oboe and fiddle player with the multi award-winning Bellowhead and a member of Faustus and Belshazzar’s Feast, died suddenly last September, aged just 51.
A regular performer at FolkEast, Paul was among those who joined an impromptu singaround at the festival last year led by popular East Anglian duo Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith along with traditional folk artist Jon Wilks, a friend of Sartin’s – they were both residents of the same Hampshire village of Whitchurch.
Jon explains: “I bumped into Jimmy and Sid at last year’s FolkEast. We hadn’t seen each other for a few years so we decided to meet up that evening for a bit of a singsong at one of the festival pubs, The Hop Inn. We called a few friends and about 80 people turned up, including Paul. He sang a few songs and went off into the night, full of bonhomie. His enthusiasm hadn’t abated the following morning. “That was one of the best singarounds I’ve been to in ages”, he said. “You’ve got to do that every year!”
“Sadly, Paul left us only a few weeks later. When it came to deciding on a name for this newly born singaround, all involved decided that it should be christened in his memory. Welcome, then, to The Sartin Singaround – a rowdy, beery celebration of traditional song!”
Jon, currently garnering acclaim for his album Before I Knew What Had Begun I Had Already Lost runs the Tradfolk website https://tradfolk.co/ – a media partner of FolkEast.He will be back at England’s most easterly festival the next day for Sunday’s Tradfolk Takeover which sees him curating an impressive afternoon and evening programme of seven acts at The Stage in the Woods.
Running from 1pm to 11pm it will feature a very special new opening act Patakas – none other than Paul Sartin’s sons Will and Joe Sartin. See https://youtu.be/hvr6V1bBWUo
Says Jon: “Will and Joe share a striking resemblance to their esteemed father and both are exceptionally talented musicians. Joe, still a teenager, is already proving himself a confident singer with a strong traditional repertoire that owes much to his upbringing while Will is an incredibly dexterous mandolin player with ceilidh band Out of Hand.”
It will be a fitting opener for the programme. Says Jon: “All of the artists specialise in traditional English folk music but come at it from diverse and intriguing angles. The aim was to put artists on the stage that are passionate about the tradition but not necessarily household names in the folk world.”
But, as luck would have it, Wilks had booked acts that included two that have become leading lights in the folk genre – Hack Poets Guild and Angeline Morrison.
Says Jon: “Hack Poets Guild are now one of the most spoken-about folk groups of the year and Angeline has become something of a superstar since her appearance on Later with Jools”.
FolkEast co-director Becky Marshall-Potter said: “We are delighted to be partnering with the Tradfolk team again this year. The Tradfolk Takeover will offer a fresh look at what is going on in the folk world with some incredible artists to discover while The Sartin Singaround will celebrate a much-missed artist and friend.”
The exciting Takeover programme adds to a brilliantly cosmopolitan line-up at the 11th FolkEast this August. The veritable melting pot of talent – from vintage performers to the best new acts on the block and stellar overseas performers – will come from England, Scotland, Canada and Australia and of course East Anglia.
The brainchild of husband-and-wife team John and Becky Marshall-Potter, the event at Suffolk’s Glemham Hall estate near Woodbridge will see celebrated trio The Young’uns leading the way as patrons.
Other leading acts will include Capercaillie, Lindisfarne, Imar, Kathryn Tickell & the Darkening, Australia’s The Spooky Men’s Chorale, Canadian star Son of Dave, the ‘Welsh Springsteen’ Martyn Joseph, Martin Simpson, Joshua Burnell, The Magpie Arc, Lady Maisery, John Smith & Katherine Priddy, John Spiers & Jackie Oates, Rory McLeod, Ellie Gowers, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Kitewing, Boss Morris, Vaughan Williams Youth Showcase and Bonfire Radicals.
Festival website: www.folkeast.co.uk
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