大象传媒

Mark visits Sidmouth Folk Festival in Devon, to hear some exclusive live performances.

Sidmouth is one of the UK's historic seaside folk festivals and features hundreds of events in the first week of August.

The Folk Show is visiting to coincide with the festival's 70th anniversary and Radio 2's 21st Century Folk, in which five people have folk songs written about their lives. This year, all those lives are linked to the sea.

Mark hangs out in the Bedford Hotel on the esplanade and welcomes fantastic musicians, including: Cornish shanty crew Fisherman's Friends, Canadian-American duo Allison de Groot and Tatiana Hargreaves, and outstanding trio McGoldrick McCusker & Doyle.

Mark also catches up with top Scottish band Skipinnish, who are celebrating 25 years in music with big concerts in Inverness, Edinburgh, London and Glasgow.

Devon-based musicians Jim Causley and Miranda Sykes, and narrator John Palmer, share their admiration of Sabine Baring-Gould, who collected folk songs in the region. They perform a song from their show, 'Ghosts, Werewolves and Countryfolk'.

Bryony Griffith and Alice Jones are active members of the traditional folk and dance scenes, and talk to Mark about Sidmouth Folk Festival's importance for folk dancers.