ONE of Oxfordshire's biggest music festivals – Fairport's Cropredy Convention –has today revealed the first names for next year's event.
Now in its 41st year, the festival will take place from August 13-15 at its traditional home outside the village of Cropredy, near Banbury.
As usual, the three-day event will be opened and closed by founders and organisers Fairport Convention. The traditional extended Saturday set will include founder member Richard Thompson – widely regarded as one of the world's finest guitarists. He will also perform a solo set of his own.
He will join the band for the 50th anniversary celebration of their album Full House, the band’s acclaimed 1970 LP.
Thompson will join the original Full House line-up of Simon Nicol, Dave Mattacks and Dave Pegg – with fiddler Chris Leslie standing in for the late Dave Swarbrick to play the whole album.
This evening the festival have also confirmed the remaining headliners, with award-winning folk band Clannad on the Thursday and Steve Hackett of Genesis on the Friday.
Also playing are producer Trevor Horn who created hits for Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Grace Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Seal and Robbie Williams), Thumping Tommys and Edward II on the Thursday; Maddie Morris, Emily Barker, Home Service, Martyn Joseph, The Slambovian Circus of Dreams, Sharon Shannon and Turin Brakes on the Friday; and Richard Digance, Holy Moly and the Crackers, Bar-Steward Sons of Val Doonican, Rosalie Cunningham, Matthews Southern Comfort, Richard Thompson and Fairport Convention on the Saturday.
Turin Brakes
"We're really pleased with this year's line-up," says Fairport bassist Dave Pegg.
"It consolidates Cropredy’s core appeal, celebrates Fairport’s rich heritage and also introduces a wide and diverse range of music. It'll be a particular pleasure to have Richard Thompson playing with us again during our three-hour headline set on the Saturday evening."
Fairport Convention
Cropredy three-day tickets go on sale from Monday, December 2.
The first 1,000 orders will receive a Christmas card signed by all five members of Fairport Convention the first 2,000 will get a souvenir Cropredy car window sticker.
Tickets are exclusively available from Fairport Convention's website fairportconvention.com.
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