Wickham Festival News

Fairport Convention for Wickham Festival

Good news & bad news on artists appearing at next month’s Wickham Festival.

Sadly The Waterboys; Lil’ Jimmy Reed; The Slambovian Circus of Dreams; and Gaz Brookfield have all had to cancel due to COVID travel restrictions on artists from overseas and resulting UK tour cancellations.

All these artists are already re-booked for Wickham 2022. If you have Sunday day tickets for this year’s Festival you can either still attend or rollover your Sunday tickets to 2022. The Waterboys will now be appearing on Sunday 7th August 2022.

Now the good news

(i) Fairport Convention
We’re delighted to announce that Fairport Convention will headline the Sunday night this year in place of The Waterboys. This follows the cancellation of Fairport’s own Cropredy Festival the following weekend and will be a ‘UK Exclusive’ – Fairport’s only UK Festival show this year and the band’s 1st UK Festival show apart from Cropredy for many years.

Widely regarded as Britain’s top folk-rock band, Fairport Convention have won a BBC Lifetime Achievement Award and Radio 2 listeners voted their ground-breaking album Liege & Lief ‘The Most Influential Folk Album of All Time’. Their story has been celebrated with television documentaries on BBC Four and Sky Arts.

(ii) Moya Brennan ‘The Voice of Clannad’
Also newly confirmed for next month’s Festival is Moya Brennan ‘The Voice of Clannad’ and her family band. Moya will be appearing on Saturday 7th August (the same night as Van Morrison) and her set will include classic Clannad material.

(iii) Liam O’Maonlai & Peter O’Toole
Newly confirmed for Sunday 8th August are Liam O’Maonlai & Peter O’Toole of top Irish band ‘Hothouse Flowers’ who will be performing a special duo show including Hothouse Flowers songs such as their worldwide hit ‘Don’t Go’.

(iv) Skerryvore
And finally, top Scottish Gaelic rock band Skerryvore have also been added to our Sunday line-up. With a mix of fiddle, accordions, pipes and whistles alongside guitar, bass, drums and keys, Skerryvore represent the best in contemporary Scottish traditional music.

Tickets Update

If you’ve rolled-over 2020 tickets or bought day or weekend tickets for 2021, all tickets remain valid for this year’s Festival. If you’ve yet to buy tickets, a limited number of day & weekend season tickets remain available via our tickets page but please hurry as we look set to completely sell-out all nights in advance this year. Tickets are also on sale at The Square Cow in Wickham Square (personal callers only).

If you are unable to attend for any reason this year you can rollover your tickets again to 2022. To do so, please keep hold of your tickets for now and email us via eastfest@talk21.com when this year’s Festival is over. We’ll be able to advise then on the procedure for returning unused 2020/2021 tickets so new tickets can be issued for 2022.

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    The amazing Dhol Foundation will be at Wickham on Friday 1st August with a very special set.  Day & Weekend tickets selling fast. www.wickhamfestival.co.ukImage attachmentImage attachment+4Image attachment

    The amazing Dhol Foundation will be at Wickham on Friday 1st August with a very special set. Day & Weekend tickets selling fast. www.wickhamfestival.co.uk ... See MoreSee Less

    3 days ago
    Were pleased to see that the late, great Wilko Johnson, who appeared twice at Wickham, is having a train named after him by C2C today.  It will undertake its inaugural journey from Southend Central to Fenchurch Street at approximately 10:45.

    We're pleased to see that the late, great Wilko Johnson, who appeared twice at Wickham, is having a train named after him by C2C today. It will undertake its inaugural journey from Southend Central to Fenchurch Street at approximately 10:45. ... See MoreSee Less

    6 days ago

    Our Twitter Feed

    Applications are open to perform on our Local Artists Stage at #WickhamFestival this summer! If you're based within 30 miles of Wickham please apply to John via this email address: govinda304@hotmail.com

    Quick reminder that ticket prices will have to rise after Easter.

    You can still save £40 on every 4-day adult weekend ticket (£20 on every under-16 ticket) if you book NOW, before midnight on Easter Monday (21st April). Tickets can be booked online via

    Some great additions to our line-up with @BootlegBeatles @judietzuke @sohsteve @TheAlabama3 @stevewickham and many more.
    Have you got your tickets yet?
    If not, you can still save £40 on every adult weekend season ticket (£20 on every under-16 ticket) if you book now but hurry!

    We are delighted to announce ever-popular music legend @RthompsonMusic will be appearing on Saturday August 2. Tickets available at http://www.wickhamfestival.co.uk

    The ever-popular Phil Beer will be appearing solo at #WickhamFestival on Sun. 3rd Aug. as well as joining with Reg Meuross, Marion Fleetwood & Geraint Watkins to perform 'Fire and Dust: A Woody Guthrie Story'