History
The festival began as small private performances to locals by the electric folk band Fairport Convention to about 750 people in a village back garden in July 1976. The next year the performance was repeated and fans allowed to attend. In 1978 it was properly organized and moved to a larger site behind the Cropredy village school. It became a significant event in the band’s history as they played their farewell performance there on 4 August 1979 to around 4,500 fans, who were cheered by a promise to continue with annual reunions. From this point the Festival became the main mechanism for preserving the identity of the band and for their many fans to show their appreciation.
At the first reunion in 1980 the festival was expanded from a one to a two-day event with increasing numbers of guest acts. In 1981, lacking a suitable site at Cropredy, it was shifted to the grounds of Broughton Castle, a performance released as Moat On The Ledge - Live At Broughton Castle (1982).
The festival returned to Cropredy the next year (and has remained there ever since although the actual site has expanded over the years). Despite the fact that Fairport Convention was not active as a band from 1980 to 1985, the festival continued to grow. After the band reformed in 1985, the festival became Fairport's major platform for showcasing new material as well as revisiting the old.
During the 1990s, the festival was a two-day event. From 2000, it was expanded to three days—Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The festival takes place on the second full weekend in August. Originally known as just 'the Cropredy reunion', the event was branded Cropredy Festival until 2005 when it was retitled Fairport's Cropredy Convention. In 2007, all available tickets were sold in advance for the first time.
In 2008, a live on-stage video screen was introduced. The year was also notable because, for the first time, not a single theft from the campsites was reported to festival control over the whole three days, underlining the unique and friendly atmosphere for which the festival is famous.
Read more about this topic: Fairport's Cropredy Convention
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