Towersey Festival - Thame, Oxfordshire, 25/8/2017...28/8/2017

by Nick Dent-Robinson

published: 16 / 9 / 2017

Towersey Festival - Thame, Oxfordshire, 25/8/2017...28/8/2017

Nick Dent-Robinson admires Oxfordshire's friendly four day Towersey Festival, which this year featured sets from KT Tunstall, Eliza Carthy, Newton Faulkner and the Blockheads.

Article

Towersey started as a modest village event but, with major sets by names like KT Tunstall, Eliza Carthy, Newton Faulkner, Foy Vance and Jon Boden, in 2017 this was an event to be taken seriously! Towersey is a smoothly run festival long acknowledged by many performers as one of the nicest, friendliest gigs they ever play and, although the event has now graduated from the village green of Towersey village to the rather grander Thame Showground, somehow the feeling of an overgrown village fete still remains - which is delightful. Throughout the four day duration of Towersey, this year's crowds seemed even more mellow than usual. There is a lot to entertain children (or grannies) and there's a happy, peaceful, sedentary vibe that is entirely missing at many of Towersey's more raucous competitors. Quite a bit of the music is folksy and gentle, talented acoustic singer-songwriters abound. Amongst this year's highlights were folk act Show of Hands plus the Blockheads whose performance was as storming as ever! And KT Tunstall's set was dazzlingly impressive– a s she always is