Artists announced for main stages.
Belle and Sebastian, Levellers, Dexys, Flogging Molly and CMAT are just some of the big name headliners announced for this year’s Moseley Folk and Arts Festival from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September.
The leading UK folk music and arts festival, which is based in Birmingham, has a long history of attracting eclectic line-ups, and 2024 is no exception, with Dublin’s folk/metal quartet The Scratch, siblings The Staves, Lisa O’Neill, prolific troubadour Beans On Toast, Tuareg songwriter Mdou Moctar, and West Midlands’ Folk Album Chart-topper Katherine Priddy also set to appear.
Marking their 35th anniversary with the release of Together All The Way last year, Levellers (Friday) are one of the most respected live acts around, with their appearances never short of electrifying, while Celtic punks Flogging Molly (Friday) have built a strong loyal international fan base through endless touring, having cut their teeth as the house band at Molly Malone’s, in Los Angeles.
With such hits as Jackie Wilson Says and Come On Eileen (as Dexys Midnight Runners) resulting in over a billion worldwide streams, Kevin Rowland’s Dexys (Saturday) have never stood still. Current LP, The Feminine Divine, saw the charismatic frontman continuing to push musical boundaries.
Joining Dexys on Saturday is Dublin’s CMAT (Saturday). Recently nominated for an International Artist Of The Year BRIT Award, her second album, Crazymad, For Me, has also been shortlisted for the RTÉ Choice Music Prize.
Fresh from guest-starring in an episode of The Simpsons, Belle And Sebastian (Sunday – pictured) are one of the UK’s most beloved pop portraitists, with their recent LPs, A Bit of Previous (2022) and Late Developers (2023), ranking as some of their best.
Other acts set for the three-day festival – something of a secret gem in the UK festivals calendar – include alt.folk duo Smoke Fairies; Brown Horse, winners of Moseley Folk’s coveted Hello You! Janice Long Bursary Award 2023; Hejira, a seven-piece band celebrating the music of Joni Mitchell; Odie Leigh; Bess Atwell; and Dawn Landes & Friends Perform The Liberated Woman’s Songbook, which sees US songwriter Dawn revisit a collection of century-spanning folk songs first published in 1971, at the height of the Women’s Liberation Movement.
John Fell, Moseley Folk and Arts Festival Manager, said: “We can’t wait to welcome Brum legend Kevin Rowland and his Dexys to the festival, as well as CMAT, who is shaping up to be one of the biggest artists of the last 12 months.
“It’s also great to confirm the mighty Levellers and the sublime Belle and Sebastian, who we’ve been trying to nab for years, while the raucous Floggy Molly will undoubtedly appeal to anyone who enjoyed The Saw Doctors with us last September.
“Continuing our commitment to improve the festival experience for attendees, in 2023 we introduced a number of site and festival improvements which saw reduced wait times on entry and reduced queues at our main bars; we also added our daily schedule to our website. We’ll be retaining these changes this year, with further improvements to be revealed over the coming weeks.”
Further acts, including an expanded comedy line-up, will be announced shortly.
Moseley Folk and Arts Festival runs from Friday 30 August to Sunday 1 September 2024, at Moseley Park and Pool, Moseley, Birmingham. Tickets on sale from Friday 9 February 2024. See: moseleyfolk.co.uk.
