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Siobhan Miller Trio

One of Scotland’s most celebrated folk singer-songwriters, Siobhan Miller embarks upon an intimate trio tour, joined by two of Scotland’s finest musicians: Innes White on guitar and Charlie Stewart on fiddle. This acoustic setting is the perfect opportunity to see Siobhan’s richly celebrated Scottish folk songs up close and personal.

Siobhan’s musical prowess has earned her numerous accolades, including four BBC Alba Scots Trad Music Awards; Scots Singer of the Year titles and a BBC Radio 2 Folk Award for Best Traditional Track. Her discography boasts five solo releases, all of which have been shortlisted for BBC Alba STMA Album of the Year, including her latest album, Bloom.

An out and out, freewheeling celebration of much-loved Scottish songs, Bloom deftly balances a love of traditional song with modern influences. Joyous and cathartic, it adds to the wide ranging accolades and radio-play enjoyed throughout Siobhan’s solo career.

Having grown up in Scotland’s rich folk scene, Siobhan has been a regular performer at Glasgow’s Celtic Connections festival, where she was Artistic Director for the 2016 Opening Concert and featured amidst the star-studded Transatlantic Sessions line-up in 2022, duetting with Paul Brady and Sarah Jarosz.

Siobhan’s unique vocal style has been honed through collaborations with many of Scotland’s top musicians, including Eddi Reader, Kris Drever, & Phil Cunningham. She has also made guest appearances with the National Theatre of Scotland, spent a season on Broadway, returned to the US for a month-long residency in Boston’s Majestic Theatre for Brian O’Donovan’s Celtic Christmas, and can be spotted on US/UK TV drama Outlander.

This is a rare opportunity to see Siobhan Miller in intimate surrounds, and experience her stunning vocals and lyrical songs in a truly special setting. WemsFest are delighted to be introducing Siobhan, Innes, and Charlie to our audience – though we suspect plenty of you will need no introduction to her music!

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show.

Licensed Bar helps support WemsFest – 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. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

The Barleycorn Tavern, which is a stone’s throw from the Village Hall, are very kindly offering ticket holders 2 for 1 meals before the concert. You’ll need to call them and book at least 3 days before the event, and will need to show either your ticket or your WeGotTickets.com email.

Surtierra Touring Project – Quimantu with the WemsFest Community Choir – Leigh Park, Havant Performance

We are delighted to announce a new project, the Surtierra Touring Project, which WemsFest will be delivering locally in collaboration with London-based Anglo-Chilean band Quimantu in the first half of 2025!

The Surtierra Touring Project is a large-scale project, run by Quimantu and Musiko Musika (an artist-led music education and cultural organisation). The project will work with five community choirs to tour performances of Mauricio Venegas-Astorga‘s Misa de los Mineros (Miners’ Mass), in Hampshire, West Sussex, and Dorset, culminating with two large-scale performances in London as part of Refugee Week in June 2025, in which all singers/choirs that have been involved in the project will be invited to perform together.

Locally for WemsFest, this project will involve the creation of a collaborative community choir, bringing together locals from all walks of life, as well as deliberately involving refugees who live locally. We have two brilliant choir leaders, Emily Barden and Laura Blake, who will lead our choir. The WemsFest Choir will form to learn, rehearse, and perform the Misa de los Mineros, as well as other pieces chosen by the choir. The choir will perform three local performances of the Misa de los Mineros in Spring 2025, and will then travel to London for a special performance at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, in a grand finale for the project in June 2025. For some performances, the WemsFest choir will be joined by similar collaborative community choirs from Andover, Southampton, and Dorset.

WemsFest local performance dates are as follows:
Saturday 5th April, 7pm – St Paul’s Church, Chichester, PO19 6FT
Friday 9th May, 7pm – Park Community School, Leigh Park, Havant, PO9 4BU
Saturday 14th June, 7pm – Portsmouth Cathedral, Portsmouth, PO1 2HA

Tickets for these three local performances are available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

*Note tickets cost £12.50 general admission / £7.50 student/unwaged/Universal Credit

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

As part of our celebrations of Refugee Week 2025, the WemsFest Choir will also perform in London, at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, WC2E 9ED:
Fri 20th June, 7.30pm
Details and ticket links will be available shortly.

Licensed bar at all performances

Finally, this project is being supported by a generous grant from Arts Council England, but we need to support the project with local fundraising – we have a target of raising £15,000 locally. This money will be used to deliver our arm of the project – paying for the hire of rehearsal spaces and performance venues, paying for the choir leaders who will teach the piece to the choir, paying for the choir’s transportation to and from London for the Finale Performance, etc. If you are interested to donate or to help us raise funds to deliver the Surtierra Touring Project, we’d be absolutely chuffed! You can click on the JustGiving logo below to make a donation to help us deliver this project. Alternatively, if you have fundraising ideas, please get in touch with Mark Ringwood at adwemsfest@gmail.com

Richard Wood’s East Coast Kitchen Party (CANCELLED)

**UPDATE** Unfortunately for reasons beyond the control of WemsFest and The Crown Inn Emsworth, this gig has been cancelled. We apologise to all who were planning to attend.

Just announced! Richard Wood’s East Coast Kitchen Party!

One of the world’s finest fiddlers plays an extremely rare English date and brings all the atmosphere and fun of a Canadian East Coast Kitchen Party with him and his two accompanying musicians, Kimberley Holmes (piano) and Brent Chaisson (guitar)

Wednesday 7th May 8pm (VENUE CHANGE)
The Crown Inn (upstairs), 8 High Street, Emsworth, PO10 7AW

Named by MacLean’s Magazine as one of the Top 100 Canadians to watch in the 21st Century, 5x East Coast Music Award, multi-Music PEI Award-winning Richard Wood has blown away sold-out audiences around the globe with traditional-born, fiery brand of Celtic music.

Richard has played for Prime Ministers, Senators, Governors General, Queen Elizabeth II, King Charles III, princes, princesses, and the Emperor of Japan, but he is most proud to have entertained Canada’s Armed Forces in the North Pole, Bosnia, and twice in Afghanistan.

Richard Wood’s lucrative 30-year career includes highlights such as touring with musical heavyweights like Shania Twain and The Chieftains, and performing around the world at places like Lincoln Centre, the Kennedy Centre, and the prestigious Carnegie Hall. Wood has appeared on special televised events and programs such as The Tonight Show, Good Morning America, and treasured Canadian programs of days-gone-by like Up Home Tonight and The Rita MacNeil Show. Richard also performed for a special Canada Day on Parliament Hill, which was nationally televised by CBC in front of a live audience of over 100,000.

His Canadian Folk Music Award-nominated and ECMA-award-winning 8th album, UNBROKEN, was mastered by legendary multi-Grammy-Award-winning Bob Ludwig from Gateway Studios.

Along with winning countless championships as both a step dancer and fiddler, Richard has also earned the Don Messer Memorial Trophy, twice!

One of Prince Edward Island’s best exports and always the proud Island ambassador, Richard has brought his highly sought-after, energetic brand of music around the world, touring extensively in Australia, Europe, Asia, and all across North America.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE HAVE CHANGED THE VENUE AND TICKETING STRUCTURE FOR THIS EVENT – DO NOT BUY TICKETS USING ONLINE LINKS – INSTEAD, TICKETS WILL BE SOLD ON THE DOOR ON A FIRST-COME, FIRST-ADMITTED, ‘PAY-AS-YOU-FEEL’ BASIS
Come join us for this very special ‘kitchen party’ in the pub!

Licensed bar at all WemsFest events

GNOSS (SOLD OUT)

A welcome back to WemsFest, but to a new venue, for this multi-talented and award-winning Scots band. GNOSS combines the talents of Aidan Moodie (guitar/vocals), Graham Rorie (fiddle/mandolin/electric tenor guitar), Connor Sinclair (flute/whistles/vocals), and Craig Baxter (bodhran/percussion) – and they have 3 fabulous albums which exemplify their forward-thinking take on traditional music coupled with the warmth of their live shows.

‘Album of the Year’ Nominees, Scots Trad Music Awards 2019 & 2021
‘Up and Coming Artist of the Year’ Nominees, Scots Trad Music Awards 2017
BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award Semi-Finalists 2016
Danny Kyle Award Winners 2015

“Gnoss are one of those rare birds in folk: a group you can name after hearing their first notes.” – Folk Radio UK

Gnoss’ signature sound is a rich tapestry of acoustic layers; outstanding musicianship, deep traditional roots and contemporary compositional flair combine to create songs and tunes brimming with character. Triple Scots Trad Music Awards nominees, the band have built an invested following through their forward-thinking take on traditional music and the unique warmth of their live shows. This has been proven through three consecutive sellout appearances at Glasgow’s world-famous Celtic Connections festival.

Their 2019 release, ‘Drawn From Deep Water’ was met with widespread praise (“a refreshing blast” – RnR) for its exemplary interplay, nakedly emotional playing, and well chosen material. The 11-track album brought Gnoss to entranced audiences across France, Italy and Denmark, not to
mention the length and breadth of the UK.

Their follow-up album, ‘The Light of The Moon’, continued to demonstrate Gnoss’ dedication to their craft that places them firmly at the fore of what’s happening in Scottish folk and earned them a nomination for Album of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards. Described as “an invigorating new direction for the Gnoss boys” by Songlines, this album took Gnoss’ online fanbase by storm gaining over one million streams in 2022.

With the release of their third album, 2023’s ‘Stretching Skyward’, Gnoss reignite their collaboration with producer and engineer, Scott Wood (Skerryvore), further exploring their acoustic roots whilst incorporating new, electronic elements. Launch dates included performances across the UK and Europe, including standout appearances at the Orkney Folk Festival, Cambridge Folk Festival, Towersey Festival and Denmark’s Tønder Festival.

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

The South Side Racketeers, and DJ Rob Moore

Blue Beat, Ska but most of all Jamaican RnB will pour out of the speakers for this classic night featuring 80% of self-penned material along with some all-time classics. When you hear this beat you’ll want to move your feet !

The South Side Racketeers were conceived on a stag night about four in the morning sometime in 2004! Four friends with a common love for sixties Blue Beat, Ska, Jamaican RnB and other music decided to form a band incorporating the above influences into their own material. A few choice cover versions including ‘Ali Baba’, ‘Bartender’ and Renegade’ complemented the bed of contemporary sounding but original cuts written by the four.

The Racketeers without doubt are one of Portsmouth’s finest and certainly one of the most popular bands in the area since the early days of ‘Empitfish’, ‘The Caravans’, ‘Six Gun Sound’ an the early 80s. Now a six/seven piece-piece band playing Jamaican RnB, Trad Ska, with lashings of rare Soul, The Racketeers are not a total covers band with 80% of self-penned material. Charismatic to the end with consistently tight and lively performances, The Racketeers can be seen performing in venues across the south of England. The band have their eyes and ears firmly focused on the future. So, when you hear the beat and want to move your feet just dance to the Racketeers and the sun will keep shining!

Licensed bar helps support WemsFest – 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. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Doors open 7.30 for an 8pm start – but no admission after 9pm.

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Please park considerately.

Feast of Fiddles (note early start time 7.30pm)

The clue is in the name !

Born in Nettlebed on Valentine’s Day 1994 as a one-off special concert, Feast of Fiddles has done 29 spring tours, 26 festivals and has 7 CDs to its name. Not bad for a bunch of old folk-rockers!

This is a band of friends that puts on a show of huge dynamic range performed with passion, joy and a liberal dose of fun. Fiddlers Garry Blakeley (Band of Two), Ian Cutler (Bully Wee), Marion Fleetwood (Trad Arr, Sandy Denny Project), Tom Leary (Joe Brown), Brian McNeill (Battlefield Band), and Simon Swarbrick (Merry Hell) bring a large range of fiddle playing styles to the rock back-line – all held together by legendary drummer Dave Mattacks, Martin Vincent on guitar, Dave Harding on bass, and genial host Hugh Crabtree on accordion. This is a live music entertainment like no other on the circuit which is guaranteed to be enjoyed by even the most doubting of friends dragged along!

“Absolutely awesome!” – Sue Marchant, BBC East

“Britain’s fiddling supergroup” – Mark Radcliffe, BBC Radio 2

“The best fiddle players of a generation” – Ian A Anderson

** NOTE EARLY START!!** Doors open 7pm for a 7.30pm start.

Tickets available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

Please don’t try to park on Church Path or the other small local roads – there is plenty of free car parking in local car parks.

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Surtierra Touring Project – Quimantu with the WemsFest Community Choir – Chichester Performance

Tickets for these three local performances are available now at Bookends and Harbour Records and online at www.WeGotTickets.com/WemsFest

*Note tickets cost £12.50 general admission / £7.50 student/unwaged/Universal Credit

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Licensed bar at all performances

FARA

In celebration of their 10th anniversary, Orkney-born folk quartet FARA embark on a whistlestop tour around the UK in 2025, returning to some of their favourite venues and towns from a decade of touring. Presenting an evening of highlights from their three critically acclaimed albums, FARA’s fiery fiddles, foot-stomping piano, and enchanting three-part vocal harmony will take you on a joyful journey through their time performing at the forefront of Scotland’s folk music scene.

FARA have played at WemsFest several times previously and are a firm favourite with our audience! We are delighted to be welcoming them back to The Old Malthouse for a special 10th anniversary show.

“The album (Energy Islands) beguiles right from the pizzicato strings and dancing piano that herald the first track.” – The Scotsman

Comprising Kristan Harvey, Jeana Leslie, & Catriona Price – each on fiddle and vocals – and accompanied by Rory Matheson on piano, FARA have racked up a number of nominations and awards, including:

Scots Trad Music Awards Best Live Act Nominees 2022 & 2019

Belhaven Bursary Nominees 2019

BBC Radio 2 Horizon Award Nominees 2017

German Critics’ Choice Award Winners 2019

“Torch-bearers of a freshly reinvigorated tradition. . . one of the most exciting Scottishfolk discoveries in recent years” – AllMusic

“Gifted, imaginative, complex and engaging. . . a sound that just exudes joy” – FRUK

“Bring contemporary fiddle music to new heights. . . enthralling vocal arrangements” – Scotsman

“From delicate, elegant and beautiful to full and rich and fiery. . . spellbinding” – Fatea

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show.

Tickets available now (and selling fast already!!) at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

Steve Knightley – The Winter Yards in Spring, Solo Tour 2025 – SOLD OUT

The ‘Winter Into Spring’ tour features songs from the critically acclaimed Winter Yards album, described as “a deeply atmospheric journey” (Spiral Earth) and “a must-have for anyone seeking unforgettable music” (Here Comes the Song). Alongside these new favourites, Steve will revisit and reimagine some of his most iconic songs in a completely fresh performance.

WemsFest are thrilled to be part of Steve’s ‘Winter Yards in Spring’ Solo Tour 2025! Don’t miss your chance to experience one of the UK’s finest singer-songwriters. Known for his “powerful narratives and captivating stage presence” (Rock and Reel), Steve promises an unforgettable evening of music and stories. Book now—tickets are limited.

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show.

Licensed Bar helps support WemsFest – 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. All profits from bar and ticket sales are reinvested in the local community.

Tickets available now (and selling fast already!!) at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please get in touch with us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.

The Barleycorn Tavern, a stone’s throw from the Village Hall, is very kindly offering ticket holders 2 for 1 meals before the concert. You’ll need to call them and book at least 3 days before the event, and you’ll need to show either your ticket or your WeGotTickets.com email.

Kris Drever & Chris Stout

Kris Drever and Chris Stout are icons of the Scottish roots culture and two of the most powerful contemporary voices to sing out of it in the last quarter century.

Both come from the Northern Isles (Kris from Orkney and Chris from Shetland) and represent the strength of those identities in the music they inhabit. Inherited through childhood, family and osmosis, you can hear the wind whistling through the strings, the rhythms washing against your animal self and the old stories whispering out from the ingleneuk.

In Glasgow in 2019 the two found themselves to be neighbours in the West End and began meeting up and playing music together. Both musicians found a sound of great interest and emotional power in these little get-togethers, and it soon became a more regular happening.

Now they’ve decided to share the experience with a wider audience. Come and hear songs and tunes you know and some you don’t, shining through the unique prism of these two ‘one of a kind’ musicians.

Kris is a guitarist, singer and founder member of the trio Lau. He’s a multi award winning singer songwriter and has played and written with a galaxy of stars (Eddi Reader, Roddy Woomble, Mark Knopfler, Kate Rusby, Jack Bruce, Karine Polwart…).

Chris is a virtuoso violinist, viola player and composer, founder member of the legendary Shetland band ‘Fiddlers Bid’ and long time collaborator of the genius harpist Catriona McKay. He has performed in venues as storied as the Sydney Opera House and has composed for and performed with The Royal Scottish National Orchestra, The Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, The Trondheim Symphony Orchestra and a great many more.

Don’t miss Kris & Chris in the intimate atmosphere of The Old Malthouse, Chidham.

Doors open 7.30pm for an 8pm show.

Tickets available now (and selling fast already!!) at Bookends and Harbour Records and online here

If you require special assistance or have mobility difficulties, please contact us in advance and we will do our very best to accommodate you so that you are comfortable.