The 18th Gate To Southwell Festival (aka GTSF) runs from July 3rd to 6th 2025 at Kirklington Lakes, which is midway between Mansfield and Newark and just north of the picturesque market town of Southwell. This year marks its 18th iteration.
Regarded as one of the UK’s best small music festivals, over 60 international folk roots and acoustic acts will appear over four days. Confirmed acts so far include Richard Thompson (the great British singer-songwriter and former Fairport Convention guitarist), Senegalese star Seckou Keita and his Homeland Band, well-known Bellowhead frontman Jon Boden & His Remnant Kings and Alabama 3 (Acoustic) who sang the theme tune to Sopranos.
Other names to be released so far include Madrid-based Track Dogs, folk punks Skinny Lister, rising singer-songwriter Katherine Priddy, Texan Ruben Moreno, Spain’s El Pony Pisador, Midlands guitarist Sam Carter, highly-rated folk trio The Rosie Hood Band, Sam Kelly & Jamie Francis, Banter, Italy’s Veronica Sbergia & Max De Bernardi, Australians Hat Fitz & Cara, quality blues from Sunjay and Cadillac Kings, Liverpool folk rockers The Thomas Bradley Project and more.
GTSF is said to be one of the most family-friendly events in the UK festival calendar. In addition to high-quality folk roots and acoustic music, festival-goers can also enjoy children’s entertainment, folk dancing and ceilidhs, a food and drink festival, poetry, comedy and community spirit in abundance.
With the Cambridge Folk Festival and WOMAD not taking place this year, GTSF 2025 offers a great opportunity to catch some of the world’s leading folk roots and americana artists in beautiful rural Nottinghamshire. (Anyone wanting to view the location in your mapping software of choice can find it with the following postcode: NG22 8NX)
GTSF is a not-for-profit organisation run by enthusiastic and experienced volunteers. Any surplus income generated is ploughed into future events. For tickets and more information follow this link.
And for a flavour of what you might find you can see the video below with highlights from the last two years.
