Festival memories live on

Chester Folk Festival took place over the weekend at the Morris Dancer pub in Kelsall, where it has been based since 1979, four years after it was launched in 1975 in Chester Arts Centre (now the library).

Festival organiser Cheryl Hunt said: "This was at the invitation of Rusty Williams, a folk enthusiast and a dancer with Manley Morris Dancers, who had recently taken over the pub and renamed it from The Globe.
"The residents of Kelsall welcomed the festival warmly and have been doing so ever since."
She added: "The first festival held there is memorable for the excessive rainfall and is always referred to as 'the mud festival'.

"Conditions have improved somewhat since then and the organisers have developed various strategies for dealing with wet weather."
The festival was started by John Finnan, Mike Jenkins, Dave Boardman and Phil Stafford, who were all local folk enthusiasts and folk club organisers.
They were joined shortly after the move to Kelsall by John Evans and Barry Evans. This group ran it until 1990 when, mainly due to uncertainties about the availability of the site, the festival lapsed for two years and was restarted by the present organising group in 1993.

In the early days in Kelsall, the weekend events all took place on the main site - with the occasional singaround held in the upstairs room at the Oak (then known as the Royal Oak).
There were two marquees on the site - one for concerts and the other for dances; smaller events were held in an outbuilding adjacent to the pub, known as 'The Barn'.
This building is now part of the Morris Dancer restaurant and kitchen, but was once a very different room with a much more 'rustic' character. One of its notable features was a small balcony-style bar area, known as 'The Ashtray'.

Kelsall Community Centre and Kelsall Social Club were first used by the festival in 1994 and the events there are now an important part of the weekend activities, the community centre being the major dance venue and the social club having taken over from The Barn as the main venue for smaller events.
The Oak is still used, as is The Farmers Arms at the top of the hill, so the festival has now spread all round the village.

In 1975 a full weekend ticket cost £5.50. In 2008, the price is slightly higher at £50 for three full days and four evenings of top- quality live music. Cheryl said: "During all these many changes the Chester Folk Festival has remained a small, friendly, family event which strives to present music of the highest standard in a relaxed and informal manner.

"This year's festival took place, as always, over the spring bank holiday weekend and the organisers welcomed many friends old and new."