Chumbawamba get up again for Madfest

Tickets for Madfest 2012—three days of music, entertainment, workshops and more—are now on sale.

The event takes place at Building 21, Elsecar Heritage Centre, from Friday, September 21, to Sunday, September 23.

It also features the Eliza Carthy Band, Spiers and Boden, Thea Gilmore, Kris Drever trio, Heidi Talbot, Anna Coogan, The Baghdaddies, Blackbeards Tea Party, Ay Ducane, Holly Taymar, Bo Weavil, Blue Horyzon, Treebeard and the Albion Band.

Youthful, enthralling, charismatic, and with bags of attitude, The Demon Barbers combine solid traditional acoustic instruments and songs with the added oomph of a superbly tight rhythm section, making a unique and captivating sound.

The Demon Barber Roadshow sees them team up with some of England's most exciting young traditional dancers to create a high energy music and dance spectacular.

Eliza Carthy is a musician, singer, producer, multi-prize winner, scion of a UK folk royal family and one of the UK’s pre-eminent modern musicians.

Her new album's style is aggressive: the strings play hard. Drums, bass, Hammond, accordion, fiddle, guitar, cello, piano…the performance is visceral, emotional, exciting and full on.

Described by the Guardian as “the finest instrumental duo on the traditional scene” and twice winners of the BBC Radio 2 folk award for Best Duo, Spiers and Boden have made the genre of spontaneous, punky English folk very much their own stomping ground. 

Thea Gilmore is a real person tackling the sort of issues real people deal with every day, only, unlike the rest of us, she tackles those issues with an utterly beautiful voice and songs that touch on folk and jazz and rock and Americana.

When Chumbawamba got rid of their drum kit and heavy electric gear to experiment with a more acoustic sound the response couldn’t have been more positive.

Not only have the followers of their full blown electric days been won over to it, but also folk audiences have come to love it in great numbers. 

New songs cover such diverse topics as the wearing of iPods in public places, censorship of music under repressive regimes, the power of the voice and Simon Cowell's comeuppance.

A weekend ticket costs £40, an evening ticket is £15 and camping is £10.

Tickets are available from Elsecar Heritage box office on 01226 740203 and the from Barnsley Civic Theatre on 01226 327000.