The Long Road Festival has become somewhat of a second home to us Country and Americana fans. The festival is gaining more and more popularity and it isn’t hard to see why! The atmosphere is like no other festival, it’s homely, joyful and many of the artists hang out all day to catch the spirit of what it is all about. The fact the festival isn’t strictly country helps! The Americana, Bluegrass and Folk side really make the festival what it is. Having that massive range of mainstream to lesser known acts captures the true essence of what The Long Road is really about!

An outside festival that takes place across August Bank Holiday weekend, The Long Road will always promise good times, great music and an amazing atmosphere whatever the weather!

No other festival brings in the high calibre of artists that The Long Road does! I am not just talking big names but exceptional musicians whom may never have come to play the UK if it wasn’t for the Long Road.

This is particularly the case at The Front Porch stage. A unique setting on a front porch of a small wooden house, smoke comes out of the chimney as artists play on the front porch to an always busy audience! The Front Porch is so wonderful in fact that many people set up camp there for the entire day and evening.

You won’t get a bad artist on The Front Porch Stage, in fact you won’t get a bad artist all weekend but The Front Porch stage always brings artists you wouldn’t necessarily have heard of nor had an opportunity to see before.

In the last two years, a big part of The Front Porch Stage has been Rissi Palmer and her Color Me Country brand where she brings over a hand selected number of artists who she features regularly on her show!

This year we caught quite a few of those artists. First up was Gabe Lee. We had been looking forward to Gabe Lee since he was announced. He was one of the first artists that we researched upon his announcement and instantly fell in love with his artistry. Gabe is the perfect artist for The Long Road Festival. A beautiful blend of Americana, Country, Folk, Rock and more, Lee dazzled the crowd with his exceptional songs. Highlights came from Eveline, Rusty and more!

After Gabe Lee we caught Sacha. Sacha had a lot of dedicated fans in the crowd. A Canadian Songstress, Sacha energised the crowd with her gorgeous vocals, up beats tunes and fun stage presence. Confident soared across the grounds of Stanford Hall and it became clear that you can expect great things from Sacha in the future!

Michael B Whit was so much fun! Watching his performance just made you happy! The absolute joy of playing for us in the UK was clear as day during his set because he was just beaming. You could tell this meant a lot to him and that he had likely dreamt of the day to play the UK as he jokingly said “I am so pleased to be here in London, England, I mean Leicestershire”. The energy he brought bounced off each and every person in the audience and he certainly gave it his all. Not In Kansas was a real treat. Whit’ soulful sounds were sublime and he is an artist we intend to research more of after this weekend!

An unexpected treat came from Rissi Palmer and Miko Marks performing a duet of their single Still Here. We were so incredibly lucky to have been there for this. Miko was leaving straight after to catch her plane as had previously played The Interstate Stage. This performance was beautiful and a real joy to have witnessed!

Mississippi vocal group Chapel Hart followed and my goodness you haven’t lived unless you have seen these amazing women perform! Chapel Hart were meant to play at The Long Road last year but they got the golden buzzer on America’s Got Talent and had to postpone!

The group consists of sisters Danica Hart and Devynn Hart, and their cousin Trea Swindle. All contribute to the vocals. The sheer energy and sass from these three was off the chain! They weren’t just energetic but also so incredibly funny. They got the crowd going like no one else with engaging moments in their songs and their on stage persona and attitude was wonderfully infectious. You would never be bored at a Chapel Hart show I doubt! Their vocals and dance moves got everyone going and they were without a doubt a highlight for us all weekend and likely for many others. This is probably the only time we will see them in such an intimate setting! The girls later played an after party at the Interstate Stage which we sadly couldn’t attend as took the kids to bed but we felt that their Front Porch set was one hell of a party so we can only imagine what their Interstate set was like!

Each and every song was phenomenal! Welcome to Fist City and The Girls are Back In Town were stand out moments and the girls said “I don’t think y’all would have let us leave the UK without doing this song” before performing closing number You Can Have Him Jolene.

A big shout out needs to go to the Color Me County Band who were simply superb and had played all day with many artists and really kept the energy alive with their exceptional playing!

It always feels like an honour and a privilege to catch every artist you see on The Front Porch Stage. Never again will we be so lucky to experience these artists in a setting such as this! I remember watching Andrew Alli on the first year and being completely mesmerised by his performance. Each year the line up is unmissable and it makes it very hard to choose who to see across the whole festival all weekend! We need a Front Porch Festival of its own!