Merry Hell

A stadium gig - sort of - as part of the fabulous Nantwich Words and Music Festival - have a good look at that fabulous line up - but come back and buy a ticket for Merry Hell!! Welcome to the Nantwich Roots site! THE STORY In 2022 we - the team behind Words And Music Festival - made the decision to pick up, dust off and resurrect a Nantwich favourite. Crewe And Nantwich Folk Festival had been launched in 1977 by members of the Sing Out Folk Club. It ran successfully for a decade and, after disappearing was relaunched in the early 2000s, sadly to vanish again all too quickly. The popularity of Words And Music and the love shown by audiences visiting Nantwich from far afield seemed to spell out that the town was ready for the return of a festival celebrating all things folk and roots related. So the folk festival was re-born, re-branded as Nantwich Roots to celebrate folk, roots, blues, Americana - any music that’s honest and undiluted and preferably (in the words of one festival organiser) has a little dirt beneath its fingernails. THE FIRST TWO YEARS So far we’ve welcomed icons including The Waterboys, Ralph McTell, Seth Lakeman, Neville Staple, Fairport Convention, Eliza Carthy, Ron Sexsmith and Lindisfarne - alongside newer emerging acts such as Trials Of Cato, Robert Vincent, Little Sparrow, Kate Ellis and Elles Bailey. THE PRESENT We enter our 3rd year with our mission remaining the same - to bring stellar roots music in all forms to Nantwich. In an age where too many great festivals (and venues) are disappearing, we want to stay courageous and book acts we believe deserve to be seen - from the famous to the all-new. We treasure our loyal local audience, and we absolutely love welcoming new visitors to the town - it's a source of pride and satisfaction to us that we have enticed audience members to travel from far corners of Europe and even the USA just to attend our festival. So here - to a greatly changed world than that which greeted that first folk festival 47 years ago - comes the 3rd Nantwich Roots Fest.. We hope you like the bill. But if we missed someone off that you were hoping to see ... there's always next year! To stay tuned for festival news, feel free to sign up to our newsletter. ELLES BAILEY ian-mcnabb ICICLE WORKS ACOUSTIC BADLY DRAWN BOY THE MANFREDS MERRY HELL STEVE-WICKHAM-RAY-COEN EDDI READER ELLES BAILEY ian-mcnabb