Joe Brown, one of the headline acts scheduled to appear at this year’s Village Pump Folk Festival, has had to withdraw from the bill owing to medical reasons. Speaking this week, Festival Director, John Alderslade, said: “Everyone is disappointed that he won’t be able to play at this year’s Festival but Joe hopes this will be only a postponement and we are all looking forward to seeing him in 2015. He’s a hard performer to replace, so we have gone for a completely different kind of act and we’re delighted to have Peatbog Faeries – one of the top Scottish bands – headlining on the Village Pump Stage on the Friday night. They are great favourites on the Festival circuit and should bring the first night of our festival to a rousing climax.†Peatbog Faeries were nominated as Best Live Act in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2012 and have twice won Best Live Act in the Scottish Traditional Music Awards. With a line-up of fiddle, keyboards, pipes, drums, bass and guitar they combine traditional – sounding Scottish tunes with a hard rock edge, making them the perfect party band so Pump fans should be rocking and reeling the night away. Be a Steward at the Festival For anyone who’d like to get in free and become involved with the Festival, there are still some opportunities to be a steward over the weekend. In return for a few hours’ work each day, you can earn a free weekend ticket, worth £120. Details are on the web-site as below. The Village Pump Folk Festival takes place at the White Horse Country Park, Westbury from July 25 -27.