The fantastic Milkweed are returning to Weirdshire by popular demand, supporting the release of their new album. Since their last visit in November 2023 they have gone from strength to strength and we are VERY excited to have them back. For three years Milkweed have refined a formula taking existing source material (a folklore journal, a book on Welsh myths, another on bronze age human remains), cutting up the words and feeding them through a woodchipper of lo-fi production and experimental folk music. This time, however, they decided to push themselves further to use all 400 pages of Thomas Kinsella's masterful translation of the Táin Bó Cúailnge, rather than manipulated snippets. After it took an entire year just to process 20 pages, however, G found herself humbled. It made me appreciate oral traditions in a completely different way, the intensity with which you had to engage with the work to feel like you could understand and transmit it. Exile of the Sons of Uisliu is one of many remscéla, or pre-tales, leading up to the Táin. In the text, Derdriu, the loveliest woman in all Ireland, has been raised in isolation until she is ready for the bed of Conchobor, high king of Ulster. Derdriu falls in love with Noisiu, one of the sons of Uisliu, and together they escape to Alba where they again find themselves in peril. They are lured back to Ulster by Conchobor, but are ultimately betrayed. This event will be in the Speakeasy bar, at the Left Bank, in Hereford.

Steve Ashley is one of the best singer songwriters around. And original folkster from the 60s who played with Shirley Collins, Ashley Hutchings, Ragged Robin. Taking his inspiration from English traditional songs, Ashley has developed a songwriting style which is contemporary in content while reflecting traditional influences in his melodies, poetry and vocal delivery. His songs, old and new, still relevant in today's society. Expect humour, great guitaring, and beautiful songs. ALULA DOWN (Kate Gathercole & Mark Waters) make music that is born of relationship, exploring connection with the land and with the magical and ordinariness of our human-being - treating the ecology of place as a point of communion. They make use of collage, improvisation and field recording. Their explorations of folk song and their own self written songs are underpinned with drone and textured soundscape. Recognising that many traditional / vernacular (folk) songs illuminate dispossession and inequality, Alula Down explore these divisions between self and other. Recent musical collaborations include work with multi-award winning author Max Porter, and playing with celebrated banjo player Jacken Elswyth on her album At Fargrounds. Jude Rogers, The Guardian, Folk Album of the Month, August 2020: Echoing rain blends with shuddering drones and lyrics. Post-rock and ambient fans will relish the shape-shifting textures. Gathercole's voice is featherlight and meaningful, recalling Vashti Bunyan and late 60s private-press folk, tethering the listener to every syllable. Byron Coley in The Wire, October 2024, reviewing here i am where i must be : gorgeous folky brunt. Brilliant music.

Heavy Lidders: Psychedelic improv and hot kosmiche blues from Philadelphia USA, featuring members of Dire Wolves, Elkhorn, Bardo Pond and Jackie O Motherfucker. Joe: Local support from Liverpool, members of Hooton Tennis Club. Lo-fi, dreamy indie!