The Hartlepool Folk Festival returns in early October. Hooray! One of the finest festivals of its type in the UK, they have a line-up this year that includes some of the biggest hitters around.

And those big hitters include the brilliant Kate Rusby (pictured). This Mercury Prize nominated singer has won six (six!) BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and has also been acclaimed as one of the Top Ten Folk Voices of the Century. 2024 marks her first appearance at the Hartlepool Folk Festival and should be filed under: Eagerly Anticipated. But there are huge acts playing this year’s festival wherever you look including folk royalty in the shape of Peggy Seegar. They also have the awesome Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening (their 2023 album ‘Cloud Horizons’ is a stirring masterpiece); The Breath (featuring the dynamite duo of Ríoghnach Connolly and Stuart McCallum); Lady Maisery (this trio are frequent festival headliners and for over a decade they’ve enraptured audiences right across Europe); and the Ross Ainslie & Ali Hutton Band (the acclaimed Scottish pipers are one of the best live acts you’ll see anywhere). The festival takes place in multiple venues in Hartlepool and also includes talks, screenings, singarounds and sessions. Find out about all these – and grab that full exciting programme – from the website, below.

Hartlepool Folk Festival, 4-6 October, hartlepoolfolkfest.co.uk