Cara Dillon leads the line up in Northampton venue's run of gigs

Dillon occupies an enviable position at the very top of her genre and has been captivating audiences and achieving exceptional acclaim for more than 20 years.

Alongside a selection of favourites from her previous releases, she will be performing material from her new album Wanderer which was released last year and recorded with her husband and musical partner Sam Lakeman.

Dillon has won every folk award going, but confesses to being no purist, making music that reaches beyond the constraints and limitations of tradition.

She said: “To me, you can go anywhere with every song. The melody and message is at the forefront of everything I do. I don’t really care where the song came from, how old it is, and who did it first. It’s whether it strikes a note in my heart, does it haunt me, do I need to sing it?”

She headlines the Royal stage on Tuesday, February 13 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £22 before fees.

Next Friday, folk act Fisherman’s Friends bring their songs of the sea to the venue.

The Fisherman’s Friends are brothers John and Jeremy Brown, writer and moustachioed MC Jon Cleave, potter Billy Hawkins, smallholder John ‘Lefty’ Lethbridge, builder John McDonnell, fisherman Jason Nicholas and film maker Toby Lobb.

They have been widely credited with starting the revival of interest in shanty-style choral singing but a cornerstone of their success has been their constantly evolving and expanding repertoire.

In 2010 they signed a major record deal and their album Port Isaac’s Fisherman’s Friends went gold as they became the first traditional folk act to land a UK top ten album.

Since then, they’ve released the albums One and All and Proper Job and played to hundreds of thousands of fans at home and abroad. They sang for the Queen at her Diamond Jubilee celebrations and were selected to sing for Prince Charles and Camilla during their 2016 tour of Cornwall. They headline the Derngate stage on Friday, February 16 at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £25.50

Tickets are also on sale for internationally acclaimed singer, pianist and songwriter Joe Stilgoe who headlines the venue on Friday, February 16.

Joe will be playing songs from his five critically lauded albums, three of which have topped the UK Jazz chart, as well as some classics from the likes of Cole Porter and Louis Prima. Music from 7.45pm, tickets cost £19.50.