FOLK rock stars The Waterboys will be one of the headline acts at this year’s Looe Music Festival, the event’s organisers have revealed.

The 2018 festival will take place from Friday, September 21, to Sunday, September 23, and The Waterboys will lead the Saturday night roster on the main stage, the festival team say in their first announcements of acts. The Stranglers will be headlining on the Sunday.

More than 9,000 visitors each day help generate an estimated £2.5m of consumer spending to the town during festival week.

Also joining the line-up will be 1970s rock ’n’ roll revisionists The Quireboys, songstress PP Arnold, rockpop band Interceptors, Berkshire-based singer-songwriter Cecil, Glasgow-based rock singer-songwriter Crawford Mack, folk-rock stars Sam Kelly and the Lost Boys,  and the  London African Gospel Choir, who will perform Paul Simon’s Graceland.

Other new names for 2018 include Trad Attack from Tallinn, Estonia; the Joli Blon Cajun Band; blues guitarist and singer  John Alexander; roots duo Honey and The Bear; Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage; pop eccentric John Otway; blues and American roots musicians Martin Harley and Daniel Kimbro; Welsh indie-rock band  Himalayas; singersongwriter Rhys Lewis; Irish performance poet Stephen James Smith; BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners The Young Uns;  and party purveyors Molotov Jukebox. 

Looe favourites Oompah Brass and The Normals will be back by popular demand, as will be The Eskies, Mad Dog Mcrea, The Correspondents, Bez of the Happy Mondays with a DJ set, Uncle Frank, Gaz Brookfield and the Company of Thieves, and Wille and the Bandits.

Finnish country band Steve ’n’ Seagulls will take to the main stage on the Friday night, marrying folk instruments to AC/DC.

Performers ‘new to Looe’ this year will include Los Pacaminos, featuring Paul Young, Cornish language singer Gwenno, The Viewers, Baka Beyond, Simon James and the Deep River Pilots, Jill Jackson, Emily Capell, Tokyo Taboo, and Coco and the Butterfields.

For details see www.looe music.co.uk