The 20th Didmarton Bluegrass Festival

A brief history

The Didmarton Festival of Bluegrass Music was started in 1989 by a committee of ten volunteers and fans of Bluegrass Music. The first festival was held on the grounds of the Holford Arms near Tetbury in Gloucestershire.

At that time, there was just one major bluegrass festival in the UK at Edale in the Peak District. Although Edale was pioneering in that it was one of the first major bluegrass events in the country, there were many things that didn't appeal there. It always rained due to unfavourable local conditions! It was time for alternatives and that's what motivated the original ten people to get together and organise the first Didmarton Festival.

The event grew from a small festival of a couple of hundred people to hosting up to 800 visitors in its final years. There were many memorable moments including seeing local banjo hero Leon Hunt's first band Southern Exposure taking the stage. They raised the roof! Most of the bands active on the British bluegrass scene appeared at Didmarton over the ten years and it also became a little bit of a home for another local dignitary: Bill Smarme.

Jamming at Kemble Airfield (©Max Whitaker)

In 1998, after ten successful years the existing committee decided they couldn't really take the festival forward and decided to call it a day. Didmarton was no more...or so we thought!

The following year, 1999, with the date still free in the bluegrass annual calendar, about two hundred people turned up to what was billed as an informal gathering for a bit of music in and around the pub. The landlord was delighted by the attendance (about 150 turned up) and had set up an outside stage on the back of an articulated trailer. This was helped by glorious weather and an informal concert went on well into the night. It was a brilliant weekend and on leaving, the landlord and landlady promised we would be back the following year to do it again! It was already being dubbed the festival that wouldn't die!

In 2000, more people came and there was a marquee to protect the crowd from the elements. That really was the beginning of the revival of the event as a full festival. Over the next three years things gathered momentum and there was a substantial crowd at the final festival to be held at the Holford Arms in 2003.

Peter Rowan at the 2006 festival (©Marta Hardishy)

With a new licensing act looming and festival organisers having to take on more and more responsibility for the safety of the visitors, it was decided to look for a new site which would give us overall control over the organisation of all aspects of the festival. We also needed to provide for greater capacity.

The 2004 festival was the first to be held at Kemble Airfield. This disused World War II airfield had been since sold off and the Kemble Airfield events coordinator was very keen to have us run the festival on the site. Our hosts, the OGRI Motorcycle Club hire us their site, run all the bars for us and sell very cheap beer!

We invited American bluegrass legend Roland White to perform with his band and were also treated to a fantastic display of flat-pick guitar virtuosity by Steve Kaufman also from the USA.

In the years since, Didmarton has hosted some of the top names from North America, including Peter Rowan, Growling Old Men, Sally van Meter, Carl Jones and Beverly Smith, the Nashville Bluegrass Band and Blue Highway.

The artist's bill is always ably supported by a strong line up of British bands, several of them local to this area, and the programme also offers a variety of music outside of the bluegrass idiom. The policy is to diversify and include different genres so we can attract a wider audience. That said, the main focus will remain firmly with bluegrass.

In the medium term, we would like to continue working to establish the festival as a major outdoor acoustic music event in south Gloucestershire and hope to attract many people from Bath, Bristol and surrounding areas as well as fans from further afield. We don't want to grow to a size where the festival becomes too big to enjoy. The present organising committee like to have time for a bit of a picking session and a pint in the bar when off duty. We doubt that Micheal Eavis has time to do that at Glastonbury!

Chronology

July 1989 - First Didmarton Festival of Bluegrass Music
September 1990 - Second
September 1991 - Third
September 1992 - Fourth
September 1993 - Fifth
September 1994 - Sixth
September 1995 - Seventh
September 1996 - Eighth
September 1997 - Ninth
September 1998 - Tenth and Final Didmarton Festival of Bluegrass Music

September 1999 - First Holford Arms Picking Weekend
September 2000 - Second
September 2001 - Third
September 2002 - Fourth
September 2003 - Fifth and Final Holford Arms Picking Weekend

September 2004 - First Didmarton Bluegrass Festival (Kemble Airfield)
September 2005 - Second
September 2006 - Third
September 2007 - Fourth
August 2008 - Fifth