Fairport Cropredy Convention 2023

About Fairport Cropredy Convention 2023

Fairport Cropredy Convention 2023 will be staged over the weekend of 10 to 12 August 2023. The annual festival of folk and rock music, headed by British folk-rock band Fairport Convention is held on the edge of the village of Cropredy near Banbury in Oxfordshire.

2023 festival lineup

The 2023 festival lineup is yet to be announced, but the 2022 lineup was as follows

Thursday 11 August 2022:
The Trevor Horn Band
Clannad
Edward II
Thumping Tommys
Fairport Convention Acoustic

Friday 12 August 2022:
Steve Hackett – Genesis Revisited
Turin Brakes
Sharon Shannon
Slambovian Circus of Dreams
Martyn Joseph
Home Service
Emily Barker
Maddie Morris

Saturday 13 August 2022:
Fairport Convention & Friends (inc Full House)
Richard Thompson
Matthews Southern Comfort
Rosalie Cunningham
The Bar Steward Sons Of Val Doonican
Holy Moly & The Crackers
Richard Digance

Tickets

History

During the 1970s, Daves Pegg and Swarbrick lived in the village of Cropredy. In 1979 Fairport decided to call it a day and, having opened up for Led Zeppelin at Knebworth in the early afternoon, tore across the country in their van to do an outdoor Farewell concert at Peewit Farm on Station Road in Cropredy.

A year later, they decided to reconvene with some friends for what would become their annual reunion. Although they had performed in Cropredy before, 1980 is the year Fairport recognise as the first Cropredy Festival. The festival has continued (on various sites, including Broughton Castle) up to the present day, increasing in size from a couple of thousand to its current capacity of 20,000.

Cropredy is a music festival – it could never be pigeon-holed as a folk festival. Along with the finest in folk and folk-rock – Lindisfarne, Julie Fowlis, Steeleye Span, Ralph McTell, Cara Dillon – the Cropredy audience has witnessed the likes of Alice Cooper, Robert Plant, Status Quo, Steve Winwood and Buzzcocks. Basically, whatever music Fairport like is what ends up on the bill.

And, bucking current trends, the Cropredy Festival has always stuck to the one-stage idea. The advantage to the customer is that they won’t miss anyone. The advantage to the performer is that no matter how far down the bill they are, they are guaranteed to be performing in front of at least 10k people. Beats being stuck in an ‘Unsigned’ tent in some remote corner of a forgotten field for sure.

The Cropredy ‘Fringe’ – entertainment provided by the two pubs in the village – act as satellite stages. Indeed, many of the acts that have appeared at the festival have performed at The Brasenose Arms and The Red Lion on their way.