By REBECCA DIXON

Published at 09:47, Friday, 21 May 2010

A FIVE-DAY folk extravaganza comes to Hexham next week when the town plays host to one of the country’s most popular folk festivals – The Hexham Gathering.

This year the event is kick-started on Wednesday, May 26, by Future Traditions, a group of students from Newcastle University’s degree course in folk and traditional music.

Featuring folk singers and musicians on a wide range of instruments, including mandolin, melodeon and concertina, the concert in the Queen’s hall, Hexham, will be a celebration of the broad approaches to folk music taken by these musicians.

2010 also sees the return of Emily Portman (main image) whose rising profile has earned her a BBC Folk Award nomination for her work with harmony trio The Devil’s Interval.

This year she takes to the stage in her own right, having played a double set at last year’s Gathering with Rachel McShane.

Emily has regularly toured with the group Waterson:Carthy (Eliza Carthy played the Hexham Gathering last year) and is highly acclaimed by the likes of prolific English folk singer, Shirley Collins.

On Thursday she will play a concert in Stocksfield – one of the Gatherings’ now traditional outreach events –where she will be joined by pupils from Broomley First School as well as Hexham folk musicians Down In The Attic and young local fiddle group, Stocksfield Stompers.

Over in Allendale, another outreach venue this year, Friday night’s audience in the village hall will be treated to no fewer than four sets from locally-based performers.

Award-winning Northumbrian piper Andy May (inset) headlines bringing his musical talent to the stage on both pipes and piano.

The Gateshead-based musician is a regular performer with Jez Lowe and the Bad Pennies and Baltic Crossing.

With 14 years of Northumbrian piping experience under his belt, Andy has won the Northumbrian Pipers’ Society open competition an unprecedented nine times in a row.

He’s now putting his talents to use not just as a performer but also as a pipe tutor and competition judge.

Andy takes to the stage with Toble, one of the youth folk ensembles from the Queen’s Hall in Hexham, Clockwork and Cat Stew, which both draw their members from its ranks.

Meanwhile, over in Horsley on Friday night, raw and experienced talent are brought together for a three-way gig between newly-formed group Three Sharp Knives with Lancastrian singer-songwriter Niamh Boadle and Bellingham piper Jessica Lamb.

Saturday is the main day of events when Hexham will; be full of music and colour.

Impromptu buskers will be popping up on street corners to fill the town, with the sound of folk music while a series of free concerts will also run in the Queen’s Hall.

Among the confirmed outdoor performers are: A Batida da Rua; Priory Woods Stompers; Horizontal Sunday and Abingdon Steel Pans.

At the bandstand, an informal ceilidh for all the family will run from 12.30pm until 2pm, while close by Simon Costin will present his travelling museum of British folklore.

In the evening the usual grand ceilidh will be hosted by Wentworth leisure centre with music provided by Random, Dame Allan’s School Ceilidh Band and Hexham’s own Hydroholics with David Oliver the caller.

If that sounds too energetic, then Emily Portman will once again take to the stage, this time alongside band The Demon Barbers, who will be joined by some of the country’s most exciting traditional young dancers as part of The Demon Barber Roadshow.

And if the jam-packed events on Saturday weren’t enough, an afternoon concert at 1pm on Sunday will see local groups Toble, Down in the Attic and Folkestra take to the stage at the Queen’s Hall, while an eclectic mix of Celtic and European music will entertain at the open air gig at the Bandstand from 2.30pm.

l The Hexham Gathering runs from Wednesday, May 26 until Sunday, May 30. For more information and tickets, contact the Queen’s Hall box office on (01434) 652477.

Published by http://www.hexhamcourant.co.uk