Recent histories have obscured the early origins of the folk festival. Ken Woollard's
1974 Ten years of folk: A history of the Cambridge Folk Festival mentions three councillors who had an idea for a festival (but does not name them). Ken Woollard was the first director of the Cambridge Folk Festival in 1965, and continued to work as Festival Organiser and Artistic Director up until his death in 1993. This role was then taken up by Eddie Barcan, who had worked as Ken's assistant from 1990. Eddie Barcan was replaced by Rebecca Stewart in 2015 Laing and Newman's 1994 book
Thirty Years of the Cambridge Folk Festival (based in part on conversations with Ken Woollard) acknowledges the three councillors and names them on part of the first page that covers the setting up of festival. These key figures responsible for setting up and founding the Cambridge Folk festival are named as Paul Rayment, Philip Abrams and
George Scurfield. The role of Paul Rayment (1933–2013) is particularly relevant in the origins and establishment of the Cambridge folk festival (in the context of left wing 1960s political developments). The setting up took about nine months and was developed by Paul Rayment, Philip Abrams and George Scurfield before Ken Woollard was asked to run the festival. In the 1960s the Rayments, Sharkeys, Scurfields and Woollards were all associated with Cambridge Labour Party and the folk club to greater or lesser extents. Jack Sharkey had the original idea which may have been linked to ''
Jazz on a Summer's Day'' (1958), the documentary film set at the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, and he involved Paul Rayment. Jack Sharkey also had the idea to hold the festival at Cherry Hinton Hall, and his engagement with folk music was instrumental to the original initiative. Paul Rayment's initiative, drive, commitment and political skill produced the folk festival. In his role as a councillor, he suggested the festival site of Cherry Hinton, managed the electrics of the first festival and volunteered to stay the night in the marquee for the first festival; there was no security. The other key figures who developed the festival were Philip Abrams, a professor of sociology who saw it as a social initiative, and George Scurfield, an author, poet, and politician, whose abilities and sense of adventure and were vital to the establishment of the festival. The 1965 festival was the fruit of a Labour-dominant council in a traditionally conservative area and particularly the endeavours of Paul Rayment. The founding of the Cambridge Folk festival reflects its subsequent diversity when a war hero poet and politician worked with an eminent sociologist and a politically-driven electrician (brought up in a children's home) to bring something together representative of the 1960s zeitgeist in Cambridge. This was then handed over and brought to fruition by Ken Woollard, a local firefighter and socialist political activist, to help organise it. The first festival sold 1400 tickets and almost broke even. Squeezed in as a late addition to the bill was a young
Paul Simon who had just released "
I Am A Rock". The festival's popularity quickly grew. Woollard continued as Festival organiser and artistic director up until his death in 1993. In 2014 the festival celebrated its 50th event, including artists such as
Van Morrison and
Sinéad O'Connor. Until 2015 it was run by Cambridge City Council. It was briefly run by a charity called Cambridge Live. In 2019 it was once again taken over by Cambridge City Council. The 2024 festival lost £320,000, and in January 2025 it was announced that the 2025 festival, which would have been the 60th anniversary, was cancelled; Cambridge City Council said the funds would be used to "explore new opportunities" for the 2026 festival. == Current structure ==