The very first Cambridge Folk Festival debuted at the village of Cherry Hinton on Saturday July 31 and Sunday August 1, 1965. Since that small first festival it has turned into one of Europe's best regarded folk-based weekend festivals.
The debut festival of folk music included a young Paul Simon, who was included on the bill at the very last minute after Cambridge organiser, Ken Woollard, witnessed him play at a local folk club. In the beginning, the festival ran for only Saturday and Sunday, but this was increased to 3 days for the third festival in 1967.
The acts playing over the last thirty-six years of Cambridge have ranged from traditional-based performers like the Clancys with Tommy Makem in the first year, Jacqui McShea, Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends, Waterson's and The Doonans, to international artists like James Taylor, Arlo Guthrie, John Prine, Billy Connolly, Ted Hawkins and Paul Brady.
The festival organisation has from the first festival estimated the name "folk" in its most catholic form and amongst the more unlikely acts to have been featured at the festival are Jimmy Cliff, Marvo The Magician, and John Cooper Clarke.
There are 3 principal stages in the festival site – Stage 1, Stage 2 and the folk club marquee. It is common for artists to appear several times over the weekend. The folk club tent is hosted by several local clubs and members of the audience are invited to be a part. In the past several top name acts have been known to play informally.
The architect and first festival director, Ken Wollard, was a firefighter and for much of the time managed Cambridge FF on a part-time, unpaid basis. Most of Woollard's organizing was done via a public telephone outside the City's Fire Station. When he retired in '71, the firemen erected an "office to let" sign in the phone kiosk.
The 1st festival cost £1500, with approximately seventy per cent of the cost spent on acts. By 2005 this had risen to just more than £1 million.
This best of festivals has had quite a few tricky situations, both on and off stage. 1968 was the year the tent was destroyed by fire; in 1979 the whole site was engulfed with green insects and recently, over £615,000 of ticket money was unaccounted for when a third-party ticketing agent went out of business.
Cambridge Folk Festival 2011