ORGANISERS of this weekend's Village Pump Folk Festival have been doing some fancy footwork themselves over the last few weeks, after a couple of late line-up changes to the programme.

The gates opened at the Festival at White Horse Country Park, on the edge of Westbury, on Thursday as campers gathered ready for the start of the music today (Friday).

Weekend ticketholders and those with Sunday night tickets who were hoping to see folk legends The Strawbs have been disappointed,however, after the band cancelled all their gigs in July and August after frontman Dave Cousins was taken ill.

After being taken to hospital last month after choking while drinking a cup of tea, the singer was found to be suffering from kidney stones and needed surgery, from which he has not yet fully recovered.

An announcement from the organisers said: "The Village Pump Folk Festival team sends its sincere good wishes to Dave for his recovery. However we are delighted to announce that taking their place will be one of the hottest band around on the current music scene, Keston Cobblers Club.

"They have just released an acclaimed new album Wildfire and later this autumn will be supporting Bellowhead on part one of their farewell tour."

Another new face on the Sunday line-up is hotly tipped singer-songwriter Kelly Oliver, whose album This Land, released in October 2014 by Folkstock Records, features legendary fiddle player Dave Swarbrick, as well as BBC Folk Award Nominees Sunjay and Luke Jackson.

Kelly has appeared live on BBC regional stations, including BBC London radio in an interview with Gaby Roslin. Her first single Diamond Girl has enjoyed several regional BBC and local radio plays, including on BBC Radio 2’s Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe and Bob Harris’ BBC Radio 2 Sunday show.

A highlight of this year's festival for many will be event patron Show of Hands' recording of a new live album on the Saturday night, when the entire audience will be included as backing singers. Also performing on Saturday are Scotland’s Treacherous Orchestra, multiple award winning duo Megson, and English folk/reggae fusion masters Edward II. On Sunday the programme is still topped by Oysterband and Mad Dog Mcrea.