EppyFest, the eclectic music festival is back for its ninth year, postponed from 2020, and then again from 2021 due to the pandemic. So, EppyFest 9 will be happening on the weekend of Saturday 16th July and Sunday 17th July in 2022. We will be returning to our venue, Smokey Joe's Diner, at 16 Bennington St, Cheltenham, GL50 4ED. Below are our current planned timings and line-up, though these may change.

On the Saturday doors will open at 6:30pm and we aim to finish by around 11:30pm.

Our headliners for the Saturday night will be the amazing Arch Garrison, who we welcome back to EppyFest after their stunning & emotional performance back in 2015 at the fourth EppyFest. The duo, consisting of North Sea Radio Orchestra's Craig Fortnam and James Larcombe, play delightful psychedelic acoustic music - songs (and instrumentals) about ghosts, green growing things, old roads, earthworks, barrows and mounds.

Also on the bill on the Saturday will be The Curator, effectively the solo project for British songwriter, record producer and musician Alistair Murphy, who has worked with the likes of Tim Bowness and the late, great Judy Dyble. Alistair will be performing as part of a quartet and you can expect tracks from the 2021 album 'All Lombard Street to a China Orange', described in a Prog Magazine review as "thoughtful and assured work from a genuinely talented artist". 

And kicking off the Saturday will be Garden of Live Flowers, the psychedelic rock/pop band formed by Leopold and Allyson Blue-Sky. Leopold previously performed at the fourth EppyFest as a member of the band Unto Us.

Then, on the Sunday, doors should open at 4:30pm, and we aim to finish by around 9pm.

The Sunday will start with a performance by EppyFest favourite Neil Campbell, who has previously performed solo sets at EppyFests 6 and 7. This time, though, his solo guitar work will intermingle with duets with singer, composer and musician Una Quinn. Neil, a Liverpool composer and multi-instrumentalist has been described as, "one of the best acoustic guitar players of our time" - Jon Neudorf, Sea of Tranquility, and as “one of the U.K.’s shamefully undiscovered contemporary composers” - Bob Mulvey, The Progressive Aspect. Una's debut album, 'Inside Out', which features Neil, has been described as, "a modern reinvention of classic folk brought to life through many diverse, coloured textures” - Derval McCloat, BBC 6 Fresh on the Net.

The afternoon will continue with Psychedelicat, the duo consisting of Rebsie Fairholm and Marvin B. Naylor. Marvin's unique style of 60s-marinaded psych-pop and Rebsie's dark chocolate psych-folk combine to create new dimensions in jangle. This performance follows their well-received live debut at EppyFest 8 in 2019 and they will be performing songs mainly from their soon to be released debut album, 'Like a Delicate Psychedelicat'. 

Our Sunday headliners are new to EppyFest but we're overjoyed to welcome Hands of the Heron, an alt-folk project from Bristol, instantly recognisable for their vocal harmonies and mercurial sound. They move effortlessly between sparse choral folk and spellbinding chamber pop, richly layered with multiple instruments. Their second album, '13 Moons' was released in 2021, and has been gathering widespread praise from fans and critics alike. For example, Joyzine described it as, "a wondrous collection of curious story-songs, choral singing and carefully layered instrumentation". They will be performing as a trio, with some tracks from '13 Moons', but mostly new material that they're keen to share!

Advance tickets are available now for the whole weekend, as well as day tickets for just the Saturday or the Sunday, plus Sponsor tickets, for those of you willing to pay a little extra to support the festival this year & for the future. Sponsor tickets come with an EppyFest 9 poster & maybe something extra (TBC).