A NEW festival offering folk, roots and acoustic music is to take place at the Somerleyton Estate this summer.

International, national and local acts are to perform across two main stages when the first Folkeast festival is held during the August bank holiday weekend.

The new festival will also offer traditional skills, children’s activities, dance, craft, food, real ales, street entertainment, workshops and camping.

Details of Folkeast were unveiled this week as it was officially launched in the grounds of the Somerleyton Estate by organiser John Marshall-Potter and Hugh Crossley, the owner of the Hall.

John Marshall-Potter, who runs Gig in the Park in Halesworth, said there was a demand for the festival with the genre enjoying a resurgence in recent years.

“I have always been a big fan of folk music and know a lot of people involved in it and for years they have been saying that there is not a decent event in this part of the world,” he said. “It is a superb setting and if we get this right this is going to do the area good, Somerleyton Hall and Estate a lot of good and satisfy a lot of people.”

The festival will have two main stages, with one run by Club Uniquity, as well as session tents around the site.

Among the acts announced for this year are Seth Lakeman, Eliza Carthy Band and Baskery on Friday, August 24, Bellowhead, the Leisure Society and Lau on Saturday, August 25, and the Imagined Village, Jackie Oates and Mike Heron/Trembling Bells on Sunday, August 26.

Mr Crossley said the Estate was very excited by the festival, and was keen to find a new music niche following the demise of the Eastern Haze festival.

He said: “It was a great moment when John spoke to us about it because we have got the space and the style and the genre fits in perfectly with us.”

He added that he hoped it would be the start of a long-term relationship.