A half-hearted cheer goes up from a section of the audience - no one is quite sure how to take that news. It’s a nervous cheer. One that says plainly it very easily could have happened here at Cambridge. That much is obvious by the veritable forest of umbrellas jammed in the ground across the festival site throughout the weekend even though the sun is out and the only real rain comes overnight on Saturday when everyone’s safely under canvas. And even then it’s not proper rain, not sky turning to river rain, mud turning to slurry rain, fun turning to everyone run for the high ground rain.

Even so many people sport macs and coats, hoods and hats and one family (obviously fearing the worst) has brought an inflatable dinghy which their children do not leave for the duration. My own journey up to the festival started with a stop at Millets for emergency rain protection gear, although I stopped short of taking a boat.

It was a lucky break as well with the weather as the small festival site felt overcrowded, and that was without the crowds trying to seek what little shelter there was.

Luck with the weather aside, the liberal approach Cambridge Folk Festival takes to the term folk also paid off with styles to suit all tastes- from the quirky (Rachel Unthank and the Winterset) to funky (a stunning set from Bellowhead) to reggae (Toots and the Maytals) and Danish trad (Haugaard & Høirup).

Sharon Shannon’s new collective Renegade stole the show on Saturday evening with a big contemporary Celtic sound, and some phenomenal virtuoso performances including peerless flute from Mike McGoldrick. And on the subject of virtuosity the trio of Kris Drever, Martin Green and Aidan O’Rouke really raised the folk bar with a set of incredible energy. Show of Hands put on three decent sets and proved their song-writing talent is a match for anyone else on the circuit. One of the weekend’s highlights was Toumáni Diabate & Symmetric Orchestra, who pulled off a blinder of a set on Sunday afternoon just as everyone was flagging after a heavy three days folking it up real good.

Links:
www.cambridgefolkfestival.co.uk