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In 1976 and 1977 Chorley was the centre of the folk world, with the July Wakes Festivals aiming to be the North's answer to the Cambridge Folk Festival.
At Park Hall, Charnock Richard, part of the site of Camelot Theme Park, it featured Barbara Dickson, Fairport Convention and Mike Harding as highlights. A third festival was being planned with Lindisfarne as headliners but it was victim to a cash shortage. Here we reproduce people reminiscing about events in online chatrooms ukrockfestivals.com and www.mudcat.org...
Just listening to John Martyn recorded at the 1976 Chorley Wakes Festival, Lancashire. It sounds a riot! Martyn is introduced by the distinctive tones of compere, Tony Capstick as "featuring the worlds most famous lunatic...Danny Thompson". Apparently , Chorley shops ran out of beer and Rizla papers over this weekend.
Charlie
I don't remember it being Chorley Wakes - just Chorley Folk Festival. Took place at what was then known as Arena North, a show-jumping venue that took advantage of a natural amphitheatre in the landscape at Park Hall, Charnock Richard, now the site of Camelot theme park. I think Bass (possibly the then owners of the complex?) sponsored the festival for three years. Despite excellent line-ups in the first two years, ticket sales were not sufficient for them to continue. With two main stages and subsidiary events in the Park Hall leisure complex, it was designed to rival Cambridge, but didn't get anything like the numbers (perhaps 2-3000 each year). Great music though, I remember the Chieftains, Jack the Lad, Kate...