Fleetwood Folk and Blues Festival's virtual show starts tonight

The festival, which has been running for five years, normally features live music sessions in venues across the town, but organisers have had to adapt to the restrictions imposed by the coronavirus pandemic.

So tonight's sessions, featuring a variety of artits, can be accessed online online by live streaming, while there are live outdoor sessions on Fleetwood's Marine Hall terrace tomorrow and more online sessions from Sunday.

Rachael Bailey, one of the festival founders and key organisers, said: " It has been really tough this year but we are one of the few festivals in the UK to go ahead with a virtual festival.

The streamed sessions can be accessed by the festival's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/FwoodFolkblues/

The acts being streamed tonight include:

7pm: Paul Walker and Karen Pfeiffer

8pm Fleetwood acfoustic band Cartoon Food, with new original songs from their forthcoming new album.

9pm Sartin & Son, featuring Paul Sartin from Bellowhead

10pm Robb Johnson

Saturday's live performances at the Marine Hall terrace run from 1pm tom 7pm.

In order of appearance, those performers are: Trouble at Mill; Martin Williams (St Helens); Pete Ryder and Charlie White (Salford); Cosmic Slop Skiffle; Ex-Blackpool Gazette sports writer Steve Canavan, with guitar; John Carroll (from Shakers Blue Band) female duo Cobalt Tales.

On Sunday, some of the acts who will perform in 2021 have produced special video performances which can be accessed via the Facebook site for the rest of the week

Between 5pm and 5.45pm on the Sunday, Marc Block will be live streaming from the site.

And from 7pm to 9pm, Simmo will be streaming Memory Lane footage from the previous two years' festivals.