I POPPED into the Whitby Folk Festival last weekend, as part of the “Ballads of Child Migration” concert at the Spa Theatre, and as expected, it was crowded and busy, with all venues around the town filled with eager audiences.

BBC Radio Two’s folk show was on hand, recording snippets of concerts and interviews, including local favourites The Wilsons, with presenter Mark Radcliffe certainly getting into the spirit of things. The results can be heard on-line from last night’s broadcast. Much was being made of the age-range of the audience, as usual, with the more mature folk-fan being mostly in evidence, but there were also swarms of youngsters playing traditional folk music and showing unbounded enthusiasm wherever you looked, so that was quite gratifying.

Don’t forget, we’ve got Sedgefield Folk Festival coming up, starting on September 2, and while it is much smaller than Whitby, it’s still a treat for all concerned.

There’s still not much action on the local club front, but I notice that tonight up at The Queen’s Head in Rothbury, skilled American guitarist Brooks Williams is the special guest of the Rothbury Roots club.

Looking further ahead, all the local clubs are offering a full and attractive autumn programme of local and national names, but while we still have a bit of summer to cling on to, there’s still two more days of Whitby Folk Week to tempt us, not only with fine music and song, but the promise of a bag of chips at the end of it. Who can resist that?