Hartlepool Folk Festival

Hartlepool Folk Festival celebrates North East culture while also featuring the most prestigious names in British folk music, all on the beautiful North Sea coast.

Incredible lineup, spectacular location on the, brand new family festival, and a gorgeous Maritime Village at the National Museum of the Royal Navy – What more could you want!

After dark, focus shifts to the Historic Headland, where the Borough Hall is the Mainstage venue for large-scale evening concerts. The Borough Hall is a 10 minute ride from the NMRN, and a coach service is provided. Events at the NMRN finish at 5pm, with evenings on the Headland starting at 7:00 – freshen up, grab a bite at the Marina or around the town and make your way to the Headland in your own time.

Buy tickets here.

Family Folk Festival

If this isn’t already exciting enough, on Saturday and Sunday, The Hartlepool Family Folk Festival is BACK from for 2 FREE days of fun, arts, crafts and children’s entertainment. The Family Folk Festival will feature all manner of daytime delights, from marvellous music, circus entertainers, whirling dancers, a spectacular sea monster, and even stories told from a pedal-powered Gypsy caravan! You can create, make noise, watch, listen, and join in with loads of fun activities each afternoon. But as the light fades, shades and spirits come to life. Magical images and music emanate from a mysterious glowing wagon; the ghosts of the great deer that gave Hartlepool its name emerge from the dark; and on Sunday evening, a glorious fiery procession of myth and wonders wends its way from the Town Circle to the sea, for a final performance of music, light and shadow.

Daytime events will take place at the Borough Hall, St Mary’s Church, St Hilda’s Church, and in the Function Room of the Pot House Pub. Most of these spaces are actually much bigger and more fit-for-purpose than several of the spaces we normally use on the NMRN site – no worries about capacities, or not getting in to events you really want to see! We will use every nook and cranny for workshops and more intimate events, too – Constable’s Bar and the Croft Room, both at the Borough Hall, will be perfect for these.