The three day festival will return to the glorious 300-acre Suffolk estate of 16th-century Glemham Hall, the home of Major Philip Hope-Cobbold, between 16th-18th August 2019.
And it will be packing a punch with Richard Thompson, Cara Dillon and Karine Polwart headlining.
Leading the way will be formidable folk legend Richard Thompson – a revered singer-songwriter and jaw dropping guitarist– who takes to the main Sunset stage as Sunday night headliner.
A co-founder of trailblazing folk rockers Fairport Convention, Thompson has carved himself a high-class career bringing iconic international status, with anthemic songs like Persuasion, Beeswing and 1952 Vincent Black Lightning becoming classics.
Named as one of Rolling Stone Magazine’s '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time' he has been honoured with Lifetime Achievement Awards on both sides of the Atlantic - from the Americana Music Association in Nashville, and the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards - as well as garnering an OBE (personally bestowed upon him by the Queen at Buckingham Palace)
FolkEast will also field some of folk’s finest female artists – opening night headliner will be the brilliantly inspired Scottish singer-songwriter and hot property Karine Polwart performing with her Trio (Stephen Polwart and Inge Thomson).
Karine (2018 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards Folk Singer of the Year) is on a roll having released two hugely successful albums in quick succession – A Pocket of Wind Resistance and Laws of Motion and also migrated into the acting world including a role in Radio 4’s drama A Faraway Back of Beyond Place, a two hander with Bill Paterson. A songwriter with heart and soul, Stirlingshire-born Karine is a wonderful wordsmith and captivating performer sure to get the festival off to a grand start.
Saturday night at FolkEast will see a very special headline event as the celebrated Irish songstress Cara Dillon (“possibly the world’s most beautiful female voice” – Mojo) takes to the stage with ‘Cara Dillon and Friends’ celebrating the 10th anniversary of her landmark album Hill of Thieves which won the coveted Album of the Year at the 2008 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. Derry-born Cara will be joined by the class line-up of husband Sam Lakeman (piano, guitar), Jarlath Henderson (uillean pipes, whistle), Ed Boyd (guitar). James Fagan (bouzouki), Toby Shaer (fiddle, whistles) and Ben Nicholls (bass).
Also from Ireland, the mighty Sharon Shannon Band will be heading to Suffolk. Born in County Clare, Sharon is a show-stopping accordionist whose career is soaked in the Irish tradition but takes so many more influences on board. Sharon has played for Presidents Clinton and Obama in The White House, received a Lifetime Achievement Meteor award in 2009, and was honoured for ‘outstanding contributions in music’ at the Irish Books, Arts and Music (IBAM) awards in Chicago to say nothing of her 1991 self-titled debut CD being the best-selling album ever of instrumental traditional Irish music.