Festivals! Festivals!!! Cropredy, Aftershock, Knotfest?

Marillion, Gaza, at the 2013 Marillion Weekend, Wolverhampton UK

So today, bags packed,  getting on a British Airways flight to London, from Dallas... heading for time with friends and family and Cropredy Festival, near Oxford. It's Fairport Convention's annual event, "the friendly festival", and will be mostly folk-rock but with a few surprises mixed in.

Like Marillion. Happy face!

Fairport Convention really are the backbone of the British folk-rock movement. I still remember Sandy Denny's haunting vocals... haunting, haunted. The lineup has changed over the years, but the sound remains Fairport. Others in the lineup include Steve Hackett (he of Genesis, prog-rock fame, who will be touring the USA and Canada later this year); Chas and Dave (should be fun!),  and many others, including of course, Fairport Convention themselves.

Full lineup here: http://www.fairportconvention.com/cropredy_line_up.php

(As folk-rock reaches back to the '60s, and protest songs, people and a time with a conscience and humanity, I'm wondering if Marillion will play Gaza. It's appropriate. There are grieving mothers on both sides of the wire.)

So Cropredy, folk-rock and prog. Then in September, Aftershock here in Sacramento. October? Knotfest? Why not?

Watch this space for updates...