Looking ahead to Beyond the Moor
From Northumbrian pipes to experimental loops, Kathryn Tickell and rising star Eddie Doyle embody a festival that bridges generations
Just a few years after making its debut, Beyond the Moor has earned its place in Tyneside’s music calendar.
An all-day celebration of folk and roots music delivered across two intimate stages at Gosforth Civic Theatre, the festival was developed to give grassroots artists a platform alongside big hitters.
The 2025 edition - taking place on Saturday (October 11) and already sold out - is rubber stamping that tradition, bringing together a bill that spans generations and styles: Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening, Martin Simpson, Ross Couper and Tom Oakes, Ceitidh Mac, Nev Clay, Andy Watt, Eddie Doyle and the Newcastle University Folk Degree ensemble will all perform at an event that festival-goers often describe as more like a family gathering than a gig.
“I’ve been to Beyond the Moor before, not to play but just to watch some of the other musicians,” says this year’s headliner Kathryn Tickell.
“It seemed so friendly, and the theatre just has such a good vibe. There’s a nice café and places to hang out. It just felt really good - so much so that when we released the last album, I held the launch there.”
For Kathryn - one of Britain’s most celebrated folk musicians, and a passionate champion of Northumbrian culture - Beyond the Moor brings together some of her favourite things about live music.
“You can see the other musicians all in the same space,” she says. “Different styles and at different stages of their careers. The audience and the players are mingling around, having a bit of a chat. It’s all organised, of course, but it feels informal. I love that kind of thing.”
Kathryn will be performing with her band The Darkening - a crowd of top drawer musicians named after the Northumbrian word for ‘twilight’ and dually powered by the North East’s musical heritage and relentless creativity.
The Beyond the Moor set will be the second outing for the band’s new guitarist, Heather Cartwright. “Heather’s from Carlisle originally but lives in Glasgow now,” says Kathryn. “She really understands where we’re coming from. We played Hexham Abbey last week, which was her first show with us - quite a daunting debut - but she did great.”
Heather’s arrival has already sparked new energy in the group. “When someone new comes into the band, you immediately want to write new stuff or rework the old material,” says Kathryn.
“We’ve already been faffing around with tweaks and a couple of new songs. One I absolutely love is My Northumbria - a song Jimmy Nail wrote and sent to me. He started it about 30 years ago and finally sent me a demo. I thought it was perfect for us, so I promptly stole it!”
Audiences can expect to hear it in Gosforth on Saturday.
One of Beyond the Moor’s founding strengths is its policy of bringing established artists and emerging voices together on equal footing. It’s a quality that resonates strongly with Kathryn.
“It’s one of the things I love about festivals,” she says. “When I was starting out, they were always exciting because you got to see other musicians, maybe talk to them, maybe even play with them. It’s the same now - just reversed. I love seeing the younger musicians coming through.”
Among the next generation stepping into that space this weekend is Eddie Doyle, a 24-year-old singer-songwriter from Wallsend whose story is one of rediscovery.
Trained as a classical singer from the age of four, she set formalised music aside in her teens before finding her way back to performing almost by accident.
“I’ve made music all my life,” she says. “I had classical singing lessons until singer until I was about 14 - but when you’re fifteen and belting out Schubert, you realise it’s not very cool,” she laughs. “I stopped for a while, but I always wrote songs.”
In 2023, a friend from school invited her to play a support slot at The Globe in Newcastle - her first public performance as a solo artist. “It felt like a real gig,” she remembers. “I always wanted to do it; I just wasn’t ready.”
A repeat performance followed a year later… and then a year after that (aka March of this year) she emailed The Cumberland Arms* in Byker to see if she could play at one of its By The Fire sessions.
“That night felt completely life-changing,” Eddie says. “The room was packed by the end and it was pin-drop silent. People came up afterwards saying it felt like something big - and I could tell they were right.
“Off the back of it I started getting support slots, met my manager, and now I’m recording my first EP.”
*A lesson for all of us to SEND THAT EMAIL.
Though her name is popping up more and more on folk-leaning bills, Eddie’s music crosses boundaries. “Because I’m a woman with a guitar, I get booked for a lot of folk shows, which makes sense - I grew up in an Irish Catholic family so it’s in me,” she says.
“But I’ve always wanted to make something more experimental and maybe more electronic - sort of art-rock, Radiohead or Björk-ish, but with real folk roots. I describe it as confrontationally vulnerable.”
Her Beyond the Moor set, she says, will be “a stripped-back version” of that sound: intimate, vocal-driven, but laced with electric-guitar loops and pedal textures.
“It’s my first time at the festival and I’m so excited,” she adds. “I’m glad I’m on later so I can catch the other sets. It’s an honour to be on the same poster as people like Kathryn Tickell and Martin Simpson.”
There’s a personal resonance too. “Kathryn was a household name when I was little,” Eddie says. “My dad, who died when I was 14, had one of her albums stuck in the car stereo - it was the only thing we could listen to, and he never minded. He loved it. So to be on the same poster as her feels surreal. I really wish he could see it.”
Alongside Kathryn and Eddie, the 2025 line-up captures much of the folk spectrum: the intricate guitar work of Martin Simpson, the fiery partnership of Ross Couper & Tom Oakes, the progressive cello and electronics of Ceitidh Mac, and the inimitable storytelling treasure that is Nev Clay.
Andy Watt brings his virtuosic guitar playing to the mix, while the Newcastle University Folk Degree ensemble once again open proceedings - an annual tradition that offers audiences a glimpse of the scene’s future stars.
“Seeing young people playing traditional and folk music always makes me emotional,” says Kathryn. “It’s such a beautiful and exciting thing to see.”
That shared spirit is what first inspired Gosforth Civic Theatre and its partners to create the festival - a modern-day echo of the city’s once-thriving folk-club culture.
As marketing and programme manager Scott Forbes explains: “Beyond the Moor was created with local folk musicians to fill a gap vacated by folk clubs that once were prevalent in the city.
“The idea was to put on a straight-up music festival with a platform for local artists to share the bill with established national acts. This year’s event is the fourth iteration and is the embodiment of that idea, with degree students once again opening the event before folk legends Martin Simpson and Kathryn Tickell see the night out with a bang.
“This is the first sell-out we’ve had going into the weekend and we hope that future editions go from strength to strength, with the ambition that it grows into a multi-day event, expands genres, and becomes a fixture in every music fan’s calendar. It’s an event we’re really proud of and we feel it reflects GCT’s values of inclusivity and bringing accessible culture to our local community.”
Beyond the Moor takes place on Saturday (October 12) at Gosforth Civic Theatre. Returns only, but worth a shot! Find out more at www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk