Steve Knightley, the multi-award-winning West Country singer-songwriter and musician, is the first headline performer announced for the 2025 St Ives September Festival.
He will appear at St Ives Theatre – this year’s new Festival main venue – on Friday, September 26, the penultimate night of the town’s annual 15 days of music and arts.
The show be his first in St Ives since appearing with his Show Of Hands partner Phil Beer at the currently-closed Guildhall in 2023 as they began their year-long Final Circle tour.
Knightley, a patron of the September Festival, occupies a prominent position on the Folk and Roots music scene with a journey deeply intertwined with a profound connection to geographical places, particularly the West Country where he lives.
His work, infused with a profound love of English traditional folk music, the songs of Bob Dylan and the poetry of Ted Hughes, showcases a unique ability to craft compositions that authentically bridge historical narratives with contemporary themes.
Steve’s influential Country Life secured a nomination for the best song at the 2004 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and his impactful anti-banking anthem Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed won Best Song in 2010.
His composition The Galway Farmer has transcended its origins and is often mistakenly labelled a ‘traditional Irish folk song’, while Cousin Jack has become a modern-day Cornish anthem.
Steve is promising to bring back many of his established favourite songs along with some new ones from his new album The Winter Yards.
The Countrymen return to the Festival for the opening night at St Ives Theatre on Saturday, September 16. It will be only their second appearance in the town for the high-energy Cornish group following their hugely-popular September Festival debut in 2022.
The five-piece band feature tight four-part vocal harmony and strong instrumentation with original songs about life in Cornwall, the demise of local industries and other rural issues plus their own arrangements of contemporary folk songs.
Performing up to 50 live gigs per year including spring and autumn concert tours, their festivals include Little Orchard Festival, Rock Oyster Festival, Falmouth International Sea Shanty Festival, Falmouth Oyster Festival and Falmouth Week.
They have also appeared at Bie Diap in The Netherlands, Europe’s largest folk and sea-song festival and last September they travelled to the USA to appear at the Mineral Point Opera House in Wisconsin USA.
Having released two albums – Trees on the Hill and The River Rolls On - the Launceston-based group are currently working on a third. More September Festival events will be announced soon.
Full information and ticket booking is online at www.stivesseptemberfestival.co.uk