Van Morrison had to be courted for years before he agreed to attend the festival.Van Morrison had to be courted for years before he agreed to attend the festival.

When Cambridge City Council decided to hold a music festival in the historic English university town back in 1964, few expected it to be going strong 50 years later.

But this year the Cambridge Folk Festival is celebrating its golden anniversary in style with headliner Van Morrison − who had to be courted for years before he agreed to attend − as well as Roseanne Cash and Sinead O’Connor.

There also will be time for folksy pursuits like rapper dancing, which is a dance using a short sword, and yarn bombing − the graffiti version of knitting.

It’s this eclectic approach that keeps people coming back year after year to the festival, which runs from kicked of yesterday and runs until Sunday. And although it has evolved and expanded since the 1960s, it is still held at the compact Cherry Hinton Hall site just outside town.

“We have withstood the pressure to expand the festival or move it to a larger site because we appreciate the intimacy of the performance is what people really like − the site and the size of the marquees have been integral to our success,” said Eddie Barcan, who has run the festival since 1993.

Barcan is particularly pleased to have booked Morrison, 68, who has never played the festival before, despite repeated invitations.

Barcan took up the baton after the death of local firefighter Ken Woollard, who would organise the early festivals from a public phone box outside Cambridge Fire Station. In his first year he booked The Watersons, Peggy Seeger and a young Paul Simon, who was a late addition to the bill. The festival quickly developed a reputation for offering everything from traditional British, Irish and American folk music to cajun, zydeco, klezmer, roots and blues.

In later years, it attracted popular artists, while maintaining a good track record for spotting talent early.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.