Andy Richardson: The show will go on but Alan will be missed

They’ll be enjoying one of the UK’s greatest folk and roots festivals on the outskirts of Shropshire’s County Town. They’ll be joined by a vast online audience who’ll be joining in the fun. From Nicaragua to New Zealand and from Botswana to Belize, fans will be watching a live stream as scores of artists take to the stage.

They’ll be watching bands from around the world – particularly from the UK and North America – as 7,000 or so people gather for real ale, real music and a really good time.

But amid the revelry and fun times, there’ll be one significant absentee. The man who founded Shrewsbury Folk Festival will for the first time in its long and illustrious history be missing. Alan Surtees passed away earlier this year, following a short illness.

Twenty years ago, Alan and his devoted wife, Sandra, decided to start a festival of their own. They enjoyed weekends at folk festivals in other parts of the UK and wanted to create one in Shropshire. And who can blame them? Just think of the savings on petrol. And they could go home each night, rather than camp. A bed instead of a sleeping bag. Bliss. #WinningAtLife

The couple started the Bridgnorth Folk Festival in 1997 and in 2006 moved to Shrewsbury because they’d run out of space. They hosted a festival in the town’s Quarry. Within a year they had to move – the event had been too successful.

And then they settled on a vast out-of-town site, The County Showground, where up to 7,000 people enjoy the best of folk, roots, Americana and World music.

It became one of the best in the country, an event ranked by The Telegraph and others as out-stripping rivals. Musicians ranked it in the same elite company as Cambridge Folk Festival, purring reverentially about the manner in which they were treated by Alan, Sandra and other members of the team.

Though its founder is now gone, he’d built his event to last. And Shrewsbury Folk Festival will this year be one of the biggest and best events that the town has ever seen. That, in essence, was the genius of Alan.

Alan loved everything about the festival but most of all the people – the performers, the volunteers, the visitors. Nothing made him happier than the sight of people having a great time while listening to fabulous music.

He was someone who embraced life and lived it to the full. His joie de vivre and irreverent sense of humour were infectious and he was always the life and soul of any party.

The show will, of course, go on this year and in future years. Alan would want nothing less and it will be the most fitting way to honour his memory. Tributes will doubtless be paid from the stage – but the greatest tribute is the fact that so many people will enjoy so much good music because one man had the foresight to follow his dream.

And there’s a lesson there for all of us. Life is short. Life is sweet. We can be passive and watch the world go by or we can make it our own. We can have the courage to do the things we want to do, to achieve our aims, to walk it like we talk it. Carpe diem, and all that.

Alan was a man avowedly in that camp. He was a humble fella, no different from any of us, who lived locally. He once had a ‘proper job’ but spent all of his spare time creating something that he really, really loved. His festival came from a good place. It wasn’t motivated by money or a desire for status. He was just doing something he enjoyed. And that, in turn, brought joy to others.

There was no difference between what Alan did in Shrewsbury and what Michael Eavis did at Glastonbury 46 years ago, after being inspired by an open-air concert headlined by Led Zeppelin in 1970. Michael’s first festival, attended by 1,500, was the acorn that became an oak. Just as Alan’s concerts at Bridgnorth School blossomed into something he could not have foreseen.

Shrewsbury Folk Festival is the best of our region. It’s not like some festivals – no names – that are heavily over-commercialised. It stays true to the principles upon which it was founded, showcasing the best music it can afford and making space for local talent where possible.

Over the years, it’s featured the best of British, American and World folk and roots stars, helped preserve an important part of our cultural heritage, celebrated the life of Shrewsbury’s most famous son Charles Darwin and brought pleasure to tens of thousands.

And though it’s founder will be absent this year, he’ll no doubt be watching on from somewhere.

God bless you, Alan. Hope you approve.