Maddy Prior & Peter Knight – album launch tour!

Folk royalty is coming to Emsworth!

🎶 Maddy Prior & Peter Knight 🎵
🗓️ Friday 19th February
📍 St James Church, Emsworth, Hampshire, PO10 7DD
🕗 Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm show, unreserved seating
🍷 Licensed bar serving Langham Brewery 🍻

🎫 Tickets on sale now at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth village, at The Westbourne Cafe in Westbourne Village, & online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

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As legends of British folk music, Maddy Prior and Peter Knight require absolutely no introduction.

From the 1960’s folk revival to the present day, to list their achievements would fill an entire website, and a memoir of their joint and individual achievements would make fascinating and compelling reading.

Both have made long lasting and significant contributions to the English folk scene, most obviously through their work with Steeleye Span, but also via a wealth of other projects including The Gigspanner Big Band and The Carnival Band. Each in their own way has changed the perception of what traditional music can be, introducing it to much wider audiences.

As one of ten exclusive album launch tour dates, Peter and Maddy revisit some special moments from their shared history with Steeleye Span, both in music and shared anecdotes.

The only word to describe this is “unmissable”!

‘Peter Knight can spin the world on his bow’ – Sir Terry Practhett

‘Prior is probably one of the most recognisable voices in folk, and folk rock music’ – Louder (Prog) Magazine

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As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, & soft drinks

All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested into our local community, delivering musical workshops in local schools each October in celebration of Black History Month

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance at adwemsfest@gmail.com or 07802 500 050 and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet

Super excited for this gig featuring one of the greatest voices on the planet PLUS Emsworth’s own Biff Roxby on trombone!

🎶 Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet 🎵
🗓️ Friday 20th November
📍 Westbourne Community Hall (AKA Westbourne Club), River Street, Westbourne, West Sussex, PO10 8TG
🕗 Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm show, unreserved seating
🍷 Licensed bar serving Langham Brewery 🍻

🎫 Tickets on sale now at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth village, at The Westbourne Cafe in Westbourne Village, & online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

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Rioghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet move with ease and confidence between swampy jazz, raucous brass, fractured funk, blues balladry, and gorgeous folkloric textures.  Connolly’s powerhouse vocals lead the charge, blending mischief, protest and vulnerability into something fiercely human and utterly live. Honeyfeet holds all of this together with a groove and a commitment to musical freedom. The lineup consists of Lorien Garth Edwards on bass, Ellis Davies on guitar, John Ellis on keyboards, Biff Roxby on brass, and Phill Howley on drums, forming a fluid and fearless musical unit.

At the heart of Ríoghnach Connolly & Honeyfeet is the indomitable Ríoghnach Connolly, whose voice is equal parts fierce, tender and fearless, connecting ancestral song traditions with contemporary storytelling. She has won the RTÉ Radio 1 Folk Award for Best Folk Singer and BBC Radio 2’s Folk Singer of the Year. In early 2025, she joined Annie Lennox on stage at the Royal Albert Hall for “Sisters: Annie Lennox and Friends,” a landmark concert that raised funds for The Circle, Lennox’s global feminist organisation. Sharing the bill with artists including Celeste and Nadine Shah, Connolly brought her singular presence to a night that celebrated the transformative power of music and collective voice.

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As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, & soft drinks

WemsFest is an entirely volunteer-run community interest company. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested into our local community, delivering musical workshops in local schools each October in celebration of Black History Month

This year our charity bucket on the bar is supporting relationships & sex education in local schools, delivered by Options Chichester – please do help us support this important work

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance at adwesmfest@gmail.com or 07802 500 050 and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

TopHouse, with support from Raynes (SOLD OUT)

Fast-paced, high-energy foot stompers. Ballads that’ll make you cry. It’s kind of like a rock band married old-fashioned bluegrass and had a little baby. And named it TopHouse. We can’t wait to have them on our WemsFest stage!

🎶 TopHouse, with support from Raynes 🎵
🗓️ Saturday 14th November
📍 Westbourne Community Hall (AKA Westbourne Club), River Street, Westbourne, West Sussex, PO10 8TG
🕗 Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm show, unreserved seating
🍷 Licensed bar serving Langham Brewery 🍻

🎫 Tickets on sale now at Bookends and Harbour Records in Emsworth village, at The Westbourne Cafe in Westbourne Village, & online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

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Folk? Bluegrass? Rock? Irish? Pop? TopHouse are taking America by storm and the UK are up next! Don’t miss their WemsFest debut as part of their UK tour this autumn!

TopHouse is a Montana-raised Americana/Folk band made up of Jesse Davis, Joe Larson, Will Cook, and Andy LaFave. Created in 2015, the band began as a duo when two Music Composition majors at the University of Montana, guitarist/songwriter Jesse Davis and violinist William Cook, realized they loved playing music together and wanted to start – immediately. Lacking both a drummer and a singer, the first iteration of TopHouse was a virtuosity ‘Celtic folk’ instrumental duo with next-to-no connections. For about a year TopHouse performed in the bottom of parking garages in the cold Missoula air because “the reverb was cool.” William and Jesse eventually snuck their way into a local farmer’s market, and then moved onto the illustrious stardom of coffee shops, breweries, and weddings….the rest is history and you should come meet the excellent band they created when they play the intimate Westbourne Community Hall in November!

British-American act Raynes have wasted no time making themselves heard. Signing with Sony Music Publishing less than a year after their inception, the group has since released six singles and four EPs, performed at BottleRock Festival in 2025 and at sold-out venues across the US and the UK. Now, their singular blend of pop, folk, and world music is being featured on television shows, commercials, and tastemakers’ playlists, earning them hundreds of thousands of monthly listeners and millions of streams across platforms. Join us for fun when they share the stage with TopHouse in November!

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All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested into our local community, delivering musical workshops in local schools each October in celebration of Black History Month

This year our charity bucket on the bar is supporting relationships & sex education in local schools, delivered by Options Chichester – please do help us support this important work

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance at adwemsfest@gmail.com or 07802 500 050 and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Flook – celebrating their 30th anniversary!

Anglo-Irish cutting edge folk music doesn’t get much better that this !

Flook are returning to WemsFest, to celebrate their 30th anniversary!
Weds 26th Nov 8pm
St James Church, Emsworth, PO10 7BY

🎫 Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

FLOOK : CELEBRATING 30 YEARS IN 2025!

What began in 1995 as a ground-breaking union of musicians and instruments, has continued as a unique musical offering through one live album, four studio albums and countless outstanding performances.

A new recording is due for release in early 2025. After 30 years Flook show no sign of letting-up in their brilliance, their dynamism, or their inventive flair.

The band early on evolved an inimitable trademark sound and hold fast to their rightful reputation as exceptional musical innovators; the whistles and flutes of Brian Finnegan and Sarah Allen, the guitar of Ed Boyd and the bodhran of John Joe Kelly weaving and spinning tunes rooted in tradition over precise acoustic grooves, with a rare blend of fiery technical brilliance, delicate ensemble interaction and a bold, adventurous musical imagination.

There is an ever present abundance of individual virtuosity amongst Flook’s four members, but there is also something wholly unique when this iconic Anglo-Irish band step on stage together, their playing always an intuitive, almost symbiotic, exchange between the various flutes, whistles, frets and skins. An evening and a celebration you don’t want to miss out on.

‘An absolute powerhouse, a flute and whistle-led, eight-legged jig machine. Jigs, reels and waltzes whirl by. Each as glorious as the last, the musicianship as extraordinary, the mood never any less than euphoric’ – Fatea Magazine Live Review, November 2023

‘Nothing short of transcendent… No other band sound like Flook and the new material has pushed them to new, exhilarating heights’ – Songlines Magazine , July 2019

‘Never have I seen so many people so completely and utterly spellbound…the most magical of experiences’ – The Irish Post

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show
Unreserved seating

As always, we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious beers from Langham Brewery 🍻 as well as wines 🍷, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Fairport Convention

A welcome return to our friends who have pushed the term ‘folk-rock’ to the edge of the universe over several decades – too many to mention.

Expect consummate musicianship, and a liberal amount of corny jokes, and you won’t be disappointed !

Whether you are a long-time fan, a dedicated Cropredy festivalgoer, or a newcomer to their music, an evening with Fairport Convention is sure to surprise and delight you 🎶❤️🎵

As usual we’ll have our licensed bar serving delicious Langham Brewery beer🍻 , alongside wines, local cider, nonalcoholic beers, and soft drinks.

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start
Unreserved seating

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Cindy Kalmenson & Florence Sommerville

California meets Essex in this special country-Americana tour, featuring California singer-songwriter Cindy Kalmenson along with fast-rising Essex-based rootsy country singer-songwriter Florence Sommerville.

Cindy Kalmenson, one of the finest singer-songwriters currently working the West Coast club circuit, undertakes her second UK tour this June in support of her long-awaited HOME AGAIN fourth album. Droll and spirited, this talented lady displays an inner toughness with a sense of humour as well as a sense of perspective.

She has won many prestigious songwriting awards including most recently, the Rocky Mountain Folks Songwriting Contest last summer. With new vitality as a solo artist and with her new Trio as she continues to pursue her love of songwriting and performing. On stage she is very personable and engaging, using her natural humour and banter to win over an audience and then knocking them over with her dynamic voice and vivid songs.

Florence Sommerville released her latest single, (I’ll Be Your) Best Broken Heart to widespread acclaim and extensive radio plays this past January. There’s a raw rootsy quality to Florence’s music that belies her youthfulness. She doesn’t arrive as the next ready-made country star beauty figure Barbie doll. There is an unquestionable realness about the way Florence makes sense of life through her music. But she exhibits a surety of mind beyond her years, to create music that connects and inspires, and that will inflame a growing fire. An assured performer, she takes total command of any stage from the outset and allows her crystalline vocals to shine on her well-crafted original songs.

In 2025, WemsFest adds The Havana to its quiver of venues. The Havana is an atmospheric subterranean venue in the heart of Chichester. Easily accessible by public transport, come enjoy an evening out in Chichester’s premier grassroots music venue. The Havana’s licensed bar and cosy (unreserved) seating will ensure you are comfortable. Apologies however that this venue is not wheelchair-accessible.