THE folk festival season is in full swing here in the UK, and there’s plenty of local events to whet out appetite coming up in the next couple of months. Saltburn and Whitby will be with us in August with an astonishing array of guest artists, concerts and dance events that will attract audiences from all over the country.

Sedgefield Festival and Bellingham Baa-Fest happen in September, and both are already selling tickets in an effort to make sure everyone who wants to take part can make sure of getting in.

Gateshead Sage has its Americana festival next week, with acts like Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gretchen Peters and many more, who may not strictly be folk, but certainly attract a similar crowd.

Meanwhile, the local club scene is a little bit quiet at the moment, with many venues taking a summer break, but we have to chances to see a new and much heralded Scots performer, Iona Fyfe, a young lady with a piano and a fine voice, who will be at The Customs House in South Shields on Sunday, and at The Sun Inn in Stckton on Monday. Before that, at Darlington’s Copper Beech tonight, there’s a “double-header” feature, with top local bands Lacewing and Hambones strutting their respective stuff at one of the most popular local clubs.

For those of us who like bigger events with lots of thrills and spills, there’s a chance to see Scots legends The Proclaimers at Bents Park in Newcastle on Sunday. Finally, there was a good folky presence at last week’s Durham Big Meeting I hear, despite the poor weather, and that’s an event, like the region’s music itself, that is the envy of the country, if not the world, and should be cherished as such by us all.