Andrew Cowen and Dave Freak preview a cultural highlight on the Birmingham arts calendar – The Moseley Folk Festival.

It’s the last great hurrah of the summer, your final chance to roll out the picnic blanket and sit on the grass, imbibing great sounds and atmosphere before autumn starts to bite.

Moseley Folk Festival, which kicks off on Friday night and lasts the weekend, is now well established as one of Birmingham’s cultural highlights and this year, the line-up is as strong as it is eclectic.

Here are some of the stars, but remember, it’s often the less well-known names that serve up the biggest surprises, so stick around for fun.

Friday night sees Damon Gough, known to all but his mum as Badly Drawn Boy, headlining. This instinctive songwriter is now in the same pantheon as other barbed and literate English songsmiths such as Elvis Costello and Neil Hannon, a previous Moseley Folk headliner.

This Boy’s songs are warm, funny and tuneful and he has a vast catalogue to draw from. His Mercury-winning debut may have been his most promoted set, but Gough’s songs have always been strong.

He’s flanked by Gruff Rhys, the powerhouse psychedelicatessen from Super Furry Animals, who is another songwriter steeped in the English underground tradition but not afraid to write a pop song.

Villagers are the dark horses of the evening. Moseley Folk’s organisers have a knack of booking the next big thing on the cusp of major success and Conor J O’Brien’s bunch are being tipped all over the shop.

Like a certain other band from Dublin, Villagers, essentially a live vehicle for O’Brien’s songs, pack an emotional charge and deep Celtic soul. There the comparisons with Bono must stop however. This new band are neither hide-bound nor pompous. They rock, but in a good way.

Saturday is shaping up to be a huge party with Tinariwen bringing the icing on the cake all the way from the Sahara.

This large band of Touareg minstrels simply have to be seen and heard to fully appreciate. As militant as Public Enemy and as groovy as James Brown, they’re the saviours of world music, a genre which was in danger of becoming too polite and too muesli for Moseley.

Tinariwen are the real deal, proper soldiers who fought for freedom with real guns in the 1990s and still look like they could hold their own in a fight with a badger.

Continuing Moseley Folk’s fascination for psychedelic Mercury nominees are The Bees, a bunch of bearded boys from the Isle of Wight. Maybe it’s the small strip of water that separates the band from the rest of us, but there’s something unique about The Bees that endears them to everyone they play to.

There’s a sting in their songs which harks back to classic English pop like Syd-era Floyd or the Beatles, but they serve it up with lashings of funk and their own unique shuffle.

Willy Mason is an American songwriter, often dismissed as lo-fi but his talent runs deep. Another one of those artists with an instinct for melody and humour, his single Where The Humans Eat, is just one classic he will bring to Saturday. Listen out for it.

Michael Chapman (see interview opposite) will satisfy the hardcore folkies while Birmingham’s finest talent such as Pram and the Toy Hearts continue the festival organisers’ commitment to providing a stage and a leg up to the city’s brightest.

>> Next page: Sunday highlights at Moseley Folk Festival >>

Sunday is when it gets really folktastic with Billy Bragg, Eliza Carthy and Stornoway providing the top of the bill entertaining.

Bragg needs no introduction, except to say that he’s been reinvigorated by current affairs and is bristling for a fight.

After the youthful squaring up to Thatcher during the time of the Miners Strike and the Falklands, Bragg’s now older and more eloquent in his rage, but his new songs have the same bite and the old songs have gained a weighty significance. It’s not all tub-thumping though, nobody writes a love song as tender as Billy Bragg.

La Carthy has worked with Bragg in the Imagined Village, a folk supergroup of sorts and is a funny and riveting presence on any stage. Coming from the Carthy family, her knowledge of the English folk tradition is peerless, but Eliza’s also a blossoming songwriter in her own right.

Whether she will be able to carry this on when everyone clamours to hear her sing the olde ballads is unknown, but she’s sure to deliver on Sunday.

Stornoway are the Mumford and Sons you don’t want to punch and may yet outflank their faux folk contemporaries. The band name gives away where they come from and their sound is drenched in this heritage. You can almost hear the seagulls call in the quiet bits.

Returning to Moseley is the Midlands’ own Tim Buckley, Scott Matthews, one of the finest of the fine.

A stunning voice, intricate songs and the sort of intensity found only in a few, Matthews has an army of devout fans and touches anyone he plays to. This may prove to be the performance of the weekend.

>> Next page: Moseley Folk Festival line-up and tickets information >>

Moseley Folk Festival 2011 line-up (www.moseleyfolk.co.uk)

FRIDAY

MAIN STAGE: Badly Drawn Boy/ Gruff Rhys/ Villagers/ Crystal Fighters/ 9 Bach/ Vijay Kishore.

LUNAR STAGE: Boat to Row/ Malpas/ Dreaming Spires/ The Mariner’s Children/ Rebecca Hollweg.

BOHEMIAN JUKEBOX: Tom Martin/ Bill O’Brien/ Frank Cougar Inc./ Nev Hawkins/ Steve Ison/ Ben Calvert/ Timothy Parkes/ Dave Boddison/ Rob Moore.

SATURDAY

MAIN STAGE: Tinariwen/ The Bees/ Junip/ Willy Mason/ Michael Chapman/ Ruth Theodore/ Oh Ruin.

LUNAR STAGE: Pram/ The Staves/ The Toy Hearts/ Kidnap Alice/ Luke Concannon/ Bonfire Radicals/ Ben Calvert & The Swifts.nariwen

BOHEMIAN JUKEBOX: Dirty Old Folkers/ Poppy Tibbetts/ Rich McMahon/ Troy Faid/ Richard Burke/ Layla & The Good Lads/ The Cribbler/ Dust Motes.

SUNDAY

MAIN STAGE: Billy Bragg/ Stornoway/ Eliza Carthy Band/ Scott Matthews/ Jim Moray/ Old Dance School/ Sam Lee/ Bellevue Rendezvue.

LUNAR STAGE: Calan/ The Carrivick Sisters/ Cut A Shine/ David Campbell/ Skinny Lister/ Fian Elfynn.

BOHEMIAN JUKEBOX: John Preseley/ Amber Wilson/ John Napier/ David Leach/ Mr Plow/ Village Well/ Ed Aston/ Ebeneezer Pentwhistle.

* The Moseley Folk Festival opens in Moseley Park at 2pm Friday, September 2, and runs until Sunday, September 4. Gates open at 11am on Saturday and Sunday and each day finishes at 10.30pm. For tickets phone 0844 870 0000 or visit Swordfish Records, 14 Temple Street, Birmingham (0121 633 4859); Polar Bear Records, 10 York Road, Kings Heath (0121 441 5202) or The Zen Shop, 3 St Mary’s Row, Moseley (0121 449 4995).