Concerts in St Agnes’ church by Cawston Band, Cawston Community Choir and Pot of Gold Shanty Crew will provide the backbone of the festival, and as well as concerts there will be singalong sessions, special church services, workshops, a disco and a musically themed quiz night.
 
With its glorious acoustic qualities, the village’s medieval church will host a number of events and there will also be gatherings at Cawston Village Hall and the Bell Inn.
 
Cawston’s vicar, Revd. Andrew Whitehead, said: “Since the difficult times of Covid-19, when live music ground to a halt, we’ve been working hard in Cawston to bring back live music to the village.
 
“We’ve built a community choir from nothing and our friends at Cawston Primary Academy have been busy bringing back a culture of singing in the school.
 
“This new music festival is the culmination of several years of effort and we hope it will bring joy to audiences this summer.”
 
Headline performers at the month-long festival include Cawston Band, one of Norfolk’s oldest and most high-profile brass bands. It was formed in 1886 as the Cawston & District Silver Prize Band, when its first rehearsal room was based above the Bell Inn, which remained the band’s home until the 1960s.
 
In 1998 the band moved to the St Faiths Centre in Horsham St Faith, which has remained the band’s rehearsal room to the present day.
 
The festival will also welcome the Pot of Gold Shanty Crew: a group of 11 musicians and friends now in their ninth year of sprinkling shanty magic over audiences from Land’s End to the East Coast and points in between.
 
The Cawston Community Choir, which started after the Covid lockdowns as a way to encourage the return of singing in the community, will also be performing as part of the festival, bringing a mixed programme of music and a range of special guest performers.
 
The music festival is being co-ordinated by Cawston Parish Church, part of the Aylsham and District Team Ministry, and seeks to raise much needed funds for the groups and venues in the village that take part.
 
Full details of all the events and venues, along with links to buy tickets, can be found on the Cawston Music Festival website.