There’s an international flavour to the 19th Baring-Gould Festival in Okehampton, with the traditional music of Tuscany ringing out alongside the more familiar sounds of West Country folk songs.

The festival, on October 27-29, brings together well-known figures from the English folk scene such as former Steeleye Span and Albion Band member John Kirkpatrick and singer-songwriter Polly Bolton; singers and musicians from Devon and Cornwall; and the Tuscan trio, Vincanto.

This year, the popular festival is also paying homage to the tradition of shanty songs, with three shanty crews from Devon and Cornwall performing over the weekend: the all-female shanty singers from Falmouth, Figurehead; Kingsbridge shanty crew, Old Gaffers; and Mariners Away from South Zeal.

Concert-goers can be part of the event, too, with a repeat of last year’s successful Blackboard Concerts, where local artists can put their name on a board to perform in the same line-up as guest artists.

People can also sign up to the festival orchestra and festival choir, where they’ll take part in workshops led by John Kirkpatrick and Polly Bolton, before performing in the final concert on Sunday evening.

But the festival is much more than just a musical event. It’s also a celebration of community, participation, and the changing of the seasons. For the first time, as part of the family events, there are scarecrow-making workshops during the week leading up to the festival, with a parade of the scarecrows around the festival’s town centre sites on the Sunday, when the annual conker competition also takes place. There’s even a ‘Have a Go at Bagpipes’ session on Saturday afternoon!

Of course, the festival is also all about keeping the tradition of story-telling and acoustic folk music alive.

The annual event was introduced by Devon-based arts and education charity Wren Music to celebrate the work of the song collector Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924).

The squire and parson of Lewtrenchard in West Devon spent many years travelling around Devon and Cornwall, collecting local songs literally straight from the mouths of local people.

The festival is unlike any other. Taking place at a small number of venues and pubs within walking distance in the heart of Okehampton, audiences get the chance to listen to the artists up close and to chat to them. You can also expect to see music and dance breaking out in the streets.

‘We encourage participation, rather than passivity,’ said Marilyn Tucker, who co-founded Wren Music with Paul Wilson.

‘There are lots of ways people can join in if they want to.’

She explained how the connection with Vincanto came about: ’We met them through a European programme we are co-ordinating and we thought “wow, these are great”. We liked them so much that we have invited them to be part of this year’s festival.’

Wren Music rescued a huge number of Baring-Gould’s forgotten manuscripts and digitised them so everyone could access them. One of the project team was Martin Graebe, who has just written a book about Baring-Gould’s song quest, entitled As I Walked Out, and he’ll be holding a talk and book-signing session on the Saturday.

Many of the events are free or invite a donation. To find out more go to the Wren Music website — www.wrenmusic.co.uk/Events