NORMAFEST, this weekend's celebration of "all things to do with" folk music legend Norma Waterson, will conclude on Sunday with a special treat to be announced during the three-day event in Whitby.
Curated by the Waterson Carthy family in collaboration with the Musicport festival, this non-profit making venture is in its third year and is being held for the first time at Whitby Pavilion, West Cliff.
Norma, Robin Hood's Bay resident and Mercury Prize nominee, performs only rarely at the age of 77 but will sing at two concerts, the first an a cappella appearance with The Waterson Family tomorrow from 8pm to 9.15pm, supplemented by The Devil’s Interval, alias Jim Causley, Emily Portman and Lauren McCormick.
Saul Rose will open that concert and will be part of The Gift Big Band on Saturday night from 9pm to 10.30pm, alongside Norma, her husband Martin Carthy, daughter Eliza Carthy, Neill MacColl and special guest Richard Hawley, whose friendship with Norma inspired the single Heart Of Oak from his 2015 album Hollow Meadows.
Normafest special guest Richard Hawley
The Normafest comperes will be Eliza Carthy and comedian and presenter Hardeep Singh Kohli, who will open the festival by interviewing Martin Carthy from 3.30pm to 4.30pm tomorrow.
The worlds of the DJ and the folk musician tend to be seen as very different, but Edinburgh DJ and producer Dolphin Boy has carved out a distinctive niche between the two with his artful remixes of contemporary folk music, as can be heard throughout the festival.
Dolphin Boy will be keeping the café area vibrant with music tomorrow at 4.30pm to 5.15pm, 7pm to 8pm, 8.45pm to 9.45pm and 10.45pm to 11.30pm. On Saturday, he will be in action again, this time at 1pm to 2pm, 5pm to 7pm and 10.30pm to midnight.
Tomorrow's line-up will welcome Stick In The Wheel from 5.30pm to 6.45pm. This brutally honest, raw and uncompromising London folk band record to the sound of sirens and birdsong in their long-rented East End front rooms, capturing a culture that is disappearing rapidly.
Eliza Carthy and Martin Carthy
Later that night, Norma's long-time friend Peggy Seeger, the 81-year-old American singer-songwriter, will be on stage from 9.45pm to 11pm with her son Neill MacColl and Eliza Carthy.
On Saturday, two films, or possibly three, will be shown. The midday screening of Land Of Green Ginger, Alan Plater's 1973 musical evocation of Hull, Norma's birthplace, is still to be confirmed, but Where You're Meant To Be and Travelling For A Living definitely are booked in for 2.35pm and 5.15pm respectively.
Paul Fegan's 2016 documentary Where You're Meant To Be follows Arab Strap frontman and raconteur Aidan Moffat as he sets out to explore Scotland's past by rewriting and touring its oldest songs, only to run into 79-year-old force of nature Sheila Stewart, a travelling balladeer who upturns his folk assumptions.
Derrick Knight's 1966 documentary Travelling For A Living follows Norma, Lal and Michael Waterson and their cousin John Harrison, alias The Watersons, in their early years in Hull, travelling from folk club to folk club around the country in their van, while also reflecting on the influence of the sea and the fishing industry on their work.
Sam Sweeney: co-hosting sessions at Normafest
Yorkshire author and broadcaster Ian Clayton's new tribute piece, Looking For Norma, will be performed for first time on Saturday afternoon from 2pm to 2.15pm. The Anglo-Scots collaboration The Furrow Collective will play from 4pm to 5pm with a line-up of Lucy Farrell, fiddle, viola and voice, Rachel Newton, harp, fiddle and voice, Emily Portman, banjo, concertina and voice, and Alasdair Roberts, guitars and voice.
Lynched have changed their name to Lankum since the Dublin four-piece were first announced for Normafest, but they remain as punk in attitude as they are tradition in sound and will be playing from 7pm to 8.15pm.
Sessions in the theatre bar will be led by Bellowhead's Sam Sweeney and Faustus's Saul Rose, who both play in Eliza Carthy’s Wayward Band and are encouraging fellow musicians to bring their instruments with them and join in at tomorrow and Saturday's plentiful impromptu gatherings.
Normafest tickets are available on the door or in advance from Musicport on 01947 603475 or from Whitby Pavilion. Admission is £45 for both days; £25 for Friday; £30 for Saturday. Throughout the festival, stalls will be selling CDs, T-shirts, merchandise, crafts and food.
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