18th - 21st JUNE 2026
To begin with, the Folk & Boat Festival has NOT changed its name. MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH is completely independent of the Folk & Boat Festival, which has been cancelled for this year. The name was chosen very deliberately to make sure there was no confusion with the Folk & Boat Festival, and particularly with the current organisers of that event.
I was one of the founders of the Folk & Boat Festival, I was its first publicity officer and I was its first MC. In fact I've always been inordinately and inexplicably proud of the fact that I spoke the very first words at the very first Festival:
'Hello! Welcome to the first Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival!'
Not exactly Shakespeare, but what else would you say? I also founded the Salt Town Poets, who were an integral part of the Folk & Boat Festival for many years and also ran Poets & Pints and Open Mike nights at the Bore's Yed for many years.
Like all Festivals the Folk & Boat struggled for years. It never made any money and was very reliant on grants and sponsorship, neither of which were always forthcoming. Eventually, in 2011, after bailing the Festival out twice, Middlewich Town Council took over its running and continued to run it at a loss - this time to the council tax payers of Middlewich. These losses were brushed under the carpet for many years.The event was cancelled because of Covid in 2020 and 2021. And then, in 2022, having made its Events Manager redundant, MTC made the disastrous decision to 'go it alone' and tried to run 'the FAB Festival' itself, with help from 'contractors'. The final losses have yet to be calculated, but a reliable source tells me the total is approaching £250,000. The Festival went bankrupt and so, very nearly, did the council. Then, in 2023 a group of people claimed to have 'registered' the name 'Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival', thus gaining 'exclusive' rights to use the name. In fact, what they had done is create a limited company, 'Middlewich FAB Festival Ltd'.
This is where, being a 'silly old man' I fell for the lies and deception. I was told that the company's aim was to 'save' the Folk & Boat for the people of Middlewich and I fell for it, hook, line and sinker! No matter that there was little or no actual folk music any more. At least the festival was 'saved'.
I had a muddled idea that we could re-introduce the folk music later.
There were token attempts to run the festival in 2023 and 2024 (the limited company was dissolved in the latter year after one of the partners, realising what was happening, bailed out).
I'm not immune to making disastrous mistakes myself and I tried to produce a version of the long-running 'Cheshire Folk Radio Show' including some of the tribute bands and rock and pop bands at the 2024 Festival.
Bad mistake. Arthur Marshall, and others, picked up on it straight away and, quite rightly, gave me hell for even trying it.
The same year I did try to convince the 'organisers' that they should have a folk stage at what was, after all, called the 'Folk & Boat' Festival. What saved us that year was the management and staff of Middlewich Town Football Club, where the John McAteer Folk Stage was located. They made us welcome and did everything they could to help. Also the enthusiasm and sheer persistence of The Leaping Frogs (making their debut), Kissing the Flint, Jasmine Allen Estate and others, triumphing over an inadequate PA and a basically unsuitable venue helped us a lot.
No such luck in 2025, after the infamous 'move to Kinderton' (which I enthusiastically promoted, after being told another lot of lies by 'organisers').
Our 'stage' was even smaller than the year before, placed right next to the already excessively loud main stage, and had an even worse PA system.
Again, our gallant perforrmers came to our rescue, fiddling about with cheap mikes and clapped out cables on a stage no bigger than the proverbial postage stamp.
I'd had enough. I informed the organisers that my involvement with their festival was now at an end. This was after they presented me with an inscribed glass tankard naming me as a 'patron' of the festival. They're not getting it back, either. A tankard is a tankard.
So this year, I decided that, as the FAB organisers had declared that they were 'not interested' in what used to be the festival fringe, it might be an idea to put the Johnny Mac Folk Stage at the Newton Brewery Inn in Webbs Lane.
We couldn't, and didn't want to, use the name 'Folk & Boat Festival (well, actually, we could have, but I don't think we would have even if we'd realised this).
The Newton readily agreed to the idea and soon word got around. The Kings Lock expressed an interest in getting involved and, in no time, nearly every pub and club in Middlewich wanted to be a part of what we're calling 'Midsummer Middlewich'.
The rest of the story can be picked up by reading the posts on various Facebook groups, in particular the MIDSUMMER MIDDLEWICH and MIDDLEWICH COMMUNITY groups.
But let me make this crystal clear. MsM is NOT the Folk & Boat Festival under another name
In fact we've tried to make it very clear indeed that we have no connection whatsoever with the now discredited organisers of that event.
Of course people will make comparisons and assumptions. It would be too much to hope for that they wouldn't. But I sincerely hope that no one doubts our sincerity.
Our aim is to bring back just a little bit of the magic that used to be Middlewich in June. We may not succeed, but it won't be because we haven't put our hearts and souls into it.
No one can bring back the Folk & Boat Festival the way it used to be.
But I'd like to think that, if we only come close, it will have been worthwhile.
We welcome corrections and amendments to this Diary entry.
Dave Roberts
We welcome corrections and amendments to this Diary entry.
Dave Roberts
Midsummer Middlewich
11th May 2026
11th May 2026
