New-look Cambridge Folk Festival plans backed

Cambridge Folk Festival, which has been held annually since 1965, is not taking place this summer

Plans to transform one of the country's oldest folk festivals into a two-day event with additional city-wide programming have been approved by a council's cabinet.

City councillors agreed to scale back the four-day Cambridge Folk Festival in an attempt to make it sustainable and financially resilient.

Officers said it made a loss of £320,000 in 2024 and the event was cancelled this year, on what would have been its 60th anniversary.

Antoinette Nestor, Labour cabinet member for culture, economy and skills, said the new-look event would "continue to create a festival atmosphere".

"This is about more than just a music event, it is about protecting a proud piece of Cambridge's cultural heritage and reshaping it for a more resilient and more inclusive future," she said.

Cambridge Folk Festival began in 1965 and in the past has seen performances from international stars such as Van Morrison, Billy Bragg and Sinead O'Connor.

The festival will return to Cherry Hinton Hall for "a scaled back two-day greenfield event" in 2026, but there will also be a "city-wide, multi-venue" festival under the local authority's plan, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

The council said this meant there would be "a more inclusive festival with programming spread over an extended period of a week or more".

In the meantime, it has organised free and ticketed Folk in the City events this summer.

Cambridge City Council has been reviewing the future of the folk festival, which would have celebrated its 60th anniversary this year

The local authority said: "The refresh is designed to protect what makes the festival special while ensuring it is more inclusive, financially resilient and culturally relevant.

"Multi-venue formats have proved to be very successful for Celtic Connections in Glasgow, the Brighton Festival and Edinburgh's Fringe festival."

The Labour-run council approved a contingency budget of £215,000 to fund any income loss in the first year as the new format establishes itself.

There are also plans for an additional investment of £60,000 for marketing, infrastructure and local audience and artist development.

A review of the festival by officers showed the authority would have needed to have found £500,000 to support the festival's current form, at a time of multimillion-pound savings being made elsewhere.

Liberal Democrat councillor Tim Bick raised concerns about the costs incurred so far, including the 2024 loss, running this year's Folk in the City events and paying for consultants' reports.

"The total cost is now running £971,000 - that is nearly a million, making this episode quite a monumental financial cost in total," he said.

Council leader Cameron Holloway, Labour, said Bick had "conflated" a number of costs and potential costs.

He accepted there were "significant costs" associated with the event, which was a concern, but the authority was looking to mitigate that where possible.