Broadstairs Folk Week brings a packed programme of events to the seaside from August 8 – 15.

A heady mix of top line concerts, dance music from around the world, workshops and other key events, the festival is played out in venues ranging from the concert marquee for the headline acts to almost every pub, restaurant and café in the town for ceilidhs, singarounds, playarounds, poetry and music sessions, Morris dancers, Clarence the Dragon, the Hooden Horses, and a torchlight procession.

The week opens on Friday August 8 at the 500-seater concert marquee in Pierremont Park with the incomparable Eliza Carthy – one of the first of the new wave of young musicians who have invigorated the national scene.

Winner of two Mercury Prize nominations and innumerable accolades over a 15-year career including seven BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, Carthy is probably the most impressive and engaging performer of a generation.

Another headline act is Cara Dillon, out of the same stable that produced Seth Lakeman and with one of the most hauntingly beautiful voices to add a new dimension to many traditional songs. After winning the All Ireland Traditional Singing Trophy at 14, she went on to sing with Oige, De Dannan and Equation where she met her husband and musical collaborator Sam Lakeman (Seth’s brother). Dillon’s emotive and captivating performances put her at the top of her field.

Fans of the recent BBC dramatisation of Lark Rise to Candleford will delight in the celebrated stage show by Ashley Hutchings’ new Lark Rise Band whose music, words, song and dance evokes author Flora Thompson’s poignant tribute to a bygone age.

Workshops embrace Appalachian clogging, broom dance, Bulgarian dance, Cajun dance, English clog, Samba, African Polyophonies, harmony singing, claw hammer banjo, flutes and whistles, songwriting, keyboards - and even how to put together a folk orchestra.

Artistic director Kim Headley said: “One of the enormous strengths of Broadstairs Folk Week is the combination of really good outdoor free events that attract thousands of people plus an even larger programme of entertainment in venues across town such as the Sailing Club, Charles Dickens School, the Pavilion on the Sands and newcomer this year, Crampton Tower Museum. Come rain or shine there is something for everyone.”

For further information call 01843 604080 or go to www.visitthanet.co.uk