Weirdshire, Hereford - Programme for June to November 2026. | News

Weirdshire, Hereford - Programme for June to November 2026.

Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Herefordshire promoters Weirdshire have announced their programme for June to November 2026. Events take place at various venues in the city of Hereford.

An update for June 2nd, and a full list for the rest of the year.

benjin at De Koffie Pot, 2nd June TICKETS
https://wegottickets.com/f/17068

De Koffie Pot
Left Bank
Bridge Street
Hereford
HR4 9DG
http://www.theleftbankvillage.co.uk/de-koffie-pot
01432 353552

A quick one here - just to say we now have an opening act for the benjin show. Dave Nock and Mike Bethel - acoustic guitar improvisations. Beautiful and highly regarded stuff from one of the members of Taverner’s Teapot (remember when they supported Plague Doctors Cure All at the Speakeasy?). Anyway, it’ll be a perfect opening for this evening.

And a quick reminder about benjin in case anyone missed the previous email…

He’s based in London, and he’s a multi-instrumentalist, storyteller, and composer who blends folk, jazz, and classical music with field recordings. He was formerly principal musician at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.

He is a highly accomplished player of the nyckelharpa (Swedish keyed fiddle) and blends field recordings, story telling and samples into his performances.

The nyckelharpa is a bowed instrument with three melody strings, one drone and twelve sympathetic strings (which give it its unique ethereal sound). The left hand operates three (or four) separate rows of keys which then press directly onto the strings and change the notes. This keyed mechanism means that all ornamentation on the ‘harpa’ is without vibrato and imbued with a distinct percussive aesthetic. Over the last two centuries, the nyckelharpa has been primarily upheld as the national instrument of Sweden where it is generally played in a variety of folk-dance music contexts. However, traces of premodern iterations of the keyed fiddle can be found across Europe.

Here’s a full performance with cello and nyckelharpa - maybe jump in at about 1hr…. for this performance benjin isn’t using samples but that’s likely to be part of his performance for Weirdshire:
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x9fx1m0

Hope to see lots of you soon -

And in case anyone like to plan their diary further into the future (and why wouldn’t you?), here’s the rest of the year as we currently have it:

7th July Sproatly Smith at De Koffie Pot

10th August Jeffrey Alexander and Christina Carter at De Koffie Pot

15th September Peiriant at the Jam Factory

28th September Lavinia Blackwall at De Koffie Pot

11th October Kavus Torabi at De Koffie Pot

17th October Robin and Bina Williamson at De Koffie Pot

12th November - Rattle with Hurricane Tapes opening at the Jam Factory

Take care of each other
The Weirdshire Crew

https://weirdshire.com/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/357644304368277/