Hundreds of people from across the UK were in Okehampton last weekend for the annual Baring-Gould Folk Festival, organised by Devon?s folk arts development charity Wren Music. The festival included a wide range of concerts, workshops and dances, as well as a themed Dartmoor walk, and a special steam train ride on the Dartmoor Railway with music, song and Morris dancing. The wide range of acts contained a strong Devon contingent, with internationally-known artists such as vocalists Marilyn Tucker and Paul Wilson, and award-winning bagpipe and accordion duo David Faulkner and Steve Turner. They performed in events alongside the leading lights of the new generation of young Devon folk artists: fiddle duo Nick Wyke and Becki Driscoll, masterful mandolinist Matt Norman, and passionate singer and fiddler Jackie Oates. For many, the highlights of the festival were performances by the nine-piece Sardinian male voice choir Sos Cantores de Garteddi. Their repertoire combined liturgical settings stretching back to the days of plainsong, and secular songs celebrating the wildlife, agriculture and village life of their mountainous homeland. Their distinctive vocal style, with its rich harmonies and unusual melodies, won rapturous applause. The precision of their vocal delivery was so controlled and accurate that they were able to create harmonics ? sounds way above the natural pitch of the human voice ? in several songs. As well as singing in Fairplace Church, the Charter Hall, and St James Chapel, they also joined merrymakers celebrating a Hallowe?en-themed evening in a local pub, making unexpected new friends. The choir had not brought any CDs with them, but so many people requested recordings, that Wren Music will arrange to import some from Sardinia. The CDs will cost £15 (inc post and packing), and can be ordered from Wren Music, 1 St James Street, Okehampton EX20 1DW, with a cheque made out to ?Wren?. The Baring-Gould Folk festival is supported by Arts Council England, Devon County Council, Okehampton Town Council, and West Devon Borough Council.
