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Hot Box Folk & Country Festival
The first-ever Hot Box Folk & Country Festival arrives at Writtle Green, near Chelmsford, on Saturday, 5 August 2023. Clear a space in your diary and click here for tickets.
This festival is an addition to the long-running jazz extravaganza, which takes place on the Sunday of the same weekend at the same site. Hot Box, Chelmsford’s amazing grassroots venue, is co-curating the jamboree. The event will celebrate local talent and established acts across the folk and country genres.
On the folk stage…
Indie-folk troubadour Beans on Toast (aka Jay McAllister) headlines. The Braintree-based artist is a long-standing favourite across the UK festival circuit.
Up-and-coming local acts Wilswood Buoys and Armoured Man are also performing. Both groups recently supported Frank Turner and are growing stalwarts of the alt-folk scene in Essex.
There will also be an hour and half session of local folk talent to kick things off. It will be hosted by Joe Harvey of The Hardy Perennials, who curates the ‘Folk Sunday’ residency at Hot Box. In this section, musicians from the local folk session scene will be celebrated.
…and on the country stage
The organisers have pulled off a couple of real coups. Jess and the Bandits will be jetting in from Texas and Tennessee-born Alyssa Bonagura, but very much the Anglophile, will also perform her brand of country-rock. The Jackson Line from Essex will bring their modern country tunes about dreaming, heartbreak, and living in the moment.
Conclusion
Joe said, “Folk is such a broad church, but we wanted to ensure there was a spot for some local trad musicians, as well as the wider spectrum of folk and country acts on show. Hopefully, if the event goes well, and people continue to support this great local music scene, we’ll be back next year with a full day of folk, with country acts on the Friday, so we can develop the range of folk acts on offer. It should be a great day of live music and, hopefully, the start of something special on the local music scene!”
Space constraints mean that not all of the acts listed in the poster above can be covered here. But rest assured this will be a memorable day with outstanding music to be enjoyed.