GTSF 2025 Specials!
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First of all - Saturday is SPARKLE SATURDAY...so dress to impress! More coming soon.​​​
​We don't keep things simple at GTSF and bring you daily treats, which this year include:
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Kip & Dave's Top 10
Kip Winter and Dave Wilson (Winter Wilson) are great friends of GTSF and most years they are involved with one of our special concerts. This year, on Thursday evening on the Folk Stage, they are bringing a host of festival artists together to "folk-up the charts". Songs you'll know (and maybe love) will be given a folky arrangement and an individual slant by the artists involved - much of it collaborative so you never know who'll be playing with whom. The only qualification is that all songs must have been top ten hits on one or other side of the pond. So, plenty to go at!​​​​
​Saturday Blues with a Twist
Alabama 3 Acoustic will headline the Saturday afternoon concert on the Lake Stage. Globally famous for their Sopranos theme tune ‘Woke Up This Morning’, the South London roots-futurists - led by the whisky-soaked vocals of Larry Love and the soulful sounds of Zoe Devlin Love - will be armed with Rock Freebase’s battered acoustic guitar and Nick Reynolds’ harmonica to pay tribute to blues greats such as Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker.​​​
Throughout the day the Frontier Stage will play host to a variety of artists in a blues vein concluding with internationally-acclaimed rhythm & blues band The Cadillac Kings who’ve been described by The Times as “the UK’s premier blues and roots act”. Before that there’s the cajun-meets-honky-tonk zydeco blues of Ruben Moreno from Houston Texas. A star on washboard and accordion, Ruben and his band travel across musical genres from ​​​
rock to blues to ska to swing in his bid to become “the first big Zydeco crossover artist”. ​​​
Hat Fitz & Cara make a welcome return from Australia, having supported Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra in 2012. Hat Fitz is a veteran of the Aussie blues scene and Cara, originally from Northern Ireland, draws on her soul background (working with artists like Jamiroquai and Corinne Bailey). Together they blend country and delta blues with Australian folk and traditional Celtic sounds. ​​​
Adding a more acoustic element there’s Ma Polaine’s Great Decline, as featured on 6Music and Cerys Matthews’ show, plus a return for the highly-acclaimed country blues guitar and vocals of Sunjay, a solo set from Nine Below Zero’s singer Charlie Austen, a special blues set from regulars Winter Wilson and kicking it all off at 11am a story of the blues presentation from Rhydian Wyn & The Blue Fire with contributions from numerous luminaries of the local blues scene.
​Sunday Country, Swing and Honky Tonk
An Americana showcase kicking off around 2pm on the Frontier Stage, and high-stepping into the evening, featuring the country/honky tonk sounds of The Bapchilds, sophisticated swing and jazz from Slim Panatella and the Mellow Virginians, alt-country from We Mavericks, vocal harmonies from the Canadian/Scottish combination The Niche Family, the songwriting skills of (Truckstop Honeymoon’s) Mike West Band and the country meets bluegrass and rockabilly sound of The Burner Band.​​​​
