Trowbridge Village Pump Festival

Coordinates: 51°19′04″N 2°16′23″W / 51.317796°N 2.272950°W / 51.317796; -2.272950

Trowbridge Village Pump Festival (Village Pump Folk Festival)
Lindisfarne headlining in 1991
Genre	Folk music, Blues, roots, Ceilidh, Celtic music
Dates	third weekend in July (4 days)
Location(s)	Westbury, Wiltshire, England, UK
Years active	1973 - present

The Village Pump Festival is a folk music festival that takes place near Trowbridge. It has its roots 46 years ago in a barn at the Lamb Inn Trowbridge, it then moved to Stowford Manor Farm, Farleigh Hungerford, England. The music covers a variety of genres from folk and roots to blues, celtic and Ceilidh with a variety of other entertainment including a family field, with puppetry and story telling.

Background

The event arose from the folk club of the same name founded in Trowbridge in 1970 and the annual festival held there until 1984, when it moved to its present location.

Prior to 2010, all events took place in marquees and the compact site includes camping, car parking, three separate stages plus children's tent, two beer tents and a myriad of trade stalls selling items from all over the world. 2010 saw the introduction of an outdoor main stage (the Moonshine Stage), with two marquees (the Horizon and Old Rosie Stages), and several additional small stages and undercover performance areas.

The 2011 event was called off, the first time this had happened, because of difficulties in obtaining ticket revenues from the online transaction company. Trowbridge Village Pump Festival Limited, the company that ran the festival, did not find out until late January 2010 that the online transaction provider had sold on that part of their business to another company. The new owner viewed festivals in general as very risky and applied conditions to the release of the ticket revenue, i.e. the monies would not be released until 3 months after the festival. It was by that time too late move to another provider as the application period typically takes 3 months with no guarantee of acceptance. The company shareholders voted to suspend the event in 2011 whilst seeking alternatives to allow the festival to be held in 2012.

The Weekender was held at the Village pump after hearing of the demise of the Village pump Ltd. Many of the original members of the festival decided to resurrect the festival under the new name Village Pump Folk Festival, with the Blessing of Mr Pat Drinkwater, the founder of the name. The 2012 Village Pump Folk Festival is scheduled to take place at White Horse Country Park, Westbury on 20–22 July 2012 with Show of Hands as festival Patrons.^[1]

History

Original location of the Village Pump folk club at the rear of The Lamb pub

The folk club of the same name was founded by Pat Drinkwater in 1970 in an old store room at the rear of The Lamb pub in Mortimer Street, Trowbridge.^[2] Early performers included Maddy Prior and Tim Hart, Keith Christmas, Dick Gaughan and Stéphane Grappelli.^[2] Many others later played there.^[3]

The first festival was held in 1974 before moving to Stowford Farm, Wingfield in 1980, under the direction of Alan Briars and Dave Newman.^[4] Newman died in 2005 and Briars in 2007.^[4]

In 2006 a group of enthusiasts relaunched the Village Pump folk club at The Lamb.^[5]

2010 line up

2009 line up

2008 line up

2007 line up

2006 line up

Dana Gillespie and her London Blues Band appearing at the 2006 Pump festival

2005 line up

2004 line up

Images of the festival

• 
  Alan Briars (right) supervising the main stage in 1991
• 
  Site of the 1991 festival, with main tent to right and manor house to rear
• 
  The second field in 2008

References

External links

• Festival Web Site