A massive thanks to all the venues, artists and most of all, you the gig-goers, for yet another amazing festival! It was great to see Dereham alive with music and buzzing with atmosphere, as thousands flocked to watch over 100 live performances by more than 50 artists over 5 days - even the weather played ball and the storms stayed away. But nothing stands still, and we on the Festival committee now start work on making next year's festival even bigger and better.
To this end, we have set the festival dates for 2024 - the European Cup has made things a little more complicated, and we have had to slip back a week, but Dereham will be the place to go from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th July 2024, giving you the opportunity to see the best of blues music, and ending the weekend watching England play Scotland in the final on Sunday evening (well, we can dream, can't we?).
Applications to play will open at the start of November as usual, and we will be selecting our headline acts over the next few weeks, so stay in touch with us here to keep abreast of developments. And have a great summer!
Welcome to the 2023 Dereham Blues Festival website as we celebrate our 10th anniversary. Whether you are a serious performer, an enthusiastic busker or an fan of the blues and live music, we hope you’ll find everything you need here in preparation for joining us in Dereham at the end of the second week in July.
We are very proud of our festival (now widely recognised on the national blues circuit) and the many benefits it brings to the town of Dereham. If you’ve never been, it’s well worth a visit to sample a wide range of blues music – you’ll hear acoustic guitars, a heavier electric feel, wailing harmonicas, solo artists, jam sessions, original artists, bands playing old standards that make you want to get up and dance, and much more.
More than 50 bands have been booked to play in venues throughout the town. We are also hosting a family-friendly busking event on Saturday. With the exception of the opening concert, all performances are free-entry – great music for the price of a drink or two.
We're off and running with the 2023 festival - over 100 gigs, 57 bands, 15 venues, 5 days and 1000's of people haveing the best time.