Hold on to your tri-corn hats and be prepared to stamp your wooden legs – Blackbeard’s Tea Party are in town. Sea-shanties will be given a bombastic rock edge, and folk instrumentals will become late-night floor-fillers when this raucous bunch of reprobates hit the stage. They have dirt under their fingernails and a twinkle in their eyes, and you can expect fantastic musicianship, playful choreography and an unstoppable urge to move your body. Drums, electric guitars, fiddle, melodeon and 4-part vocal harmonies combine to create music that is drenched in tradition, but filtered through a kaleidoscope of modern rock and pop. Established as the go-to band for late-night folkin’ shenanigans, Blackbeard’s Tea Party have played memorable sets at Glastonbury, Cambridge Folk Festival, Fairport’s Cropredy Convention, The Rainforest World Music Festival in Borneo and many more. Their new album ‘We Are People’ was released in 2024, with a new tour being planned for Spring 2026. Blackbeard’s Tea Party are also available to book as a Ceilidh band for both public and private events, in addition to their live set.
Contemporary folk rock at its most infectious
York’s answer to The Pogues, but with cleaner fingernails
Taking traditional folk songs and themes, transforming them for the modern era with lively arrangements, infectious dance rhythms, and at times, a pronounced rock influence.
With a glint their eye and a hearty swagger in their step, they played, sang, stomped and gyrated through a consistently high-octane set that had the crowds bouncing the house down and calling for more.