Suffield Summer ¡Fiesta! 2026
Fiesta returned to the North Norfolk village of Suffield over the weekend, with another three day PRB takeover at the famous Suffield Arms
David Auckland
Fiesta returned to the North Norfolk village of Suffield over the weekend, with another three day PRB takeover at the famous Suffield Arms, a renowned local watering hole and tapas restaurant that sits directly opposite the Gunton railway station (which is on the Bittern Line that runs from Norwich to Sheringham - more about that later).
Buoyed by the success of their inaugural 'Suffield Summer ¡Fiesta!' in 2025, PRB's Rupert Orton and team returned to the Suffield Arms at the weekend, with an event that was bigger and bolder than last year, and this year featuring no less than eighteen live music acts. It all kicked off on Friday night with the legendary Gina Birch (former founder member of 70's post-punk band The Raincoats). Interrupted only by the automated text message that we all received from HM Government warning us of the extreme fire risk, Birch proved to Suffield that she has lost none of the incendiary feminist feistiness that rocked the punk world upon the release of The Raincoats' eponymous album in 1979.
The opening line-up continued with an all-too rare local festival appearance from Norwich's very own The Neutrinos. They return to Norfolk after delivering yet another triumphant run of site-specific Klanghaus shows, this time tucked away at the very top of the Brighton Pavilion. There, the band performed over 100 shows, each to an audience of just six people, as part of this year's Brighton International Festival. Their Suffield set, in comparison, was a full-on retrospective rock show, a homecoming celebration, and a trip back in time to those early Klanghaus shows held within the then abandoned St George's Works in Norwich's Colegate. Memories of those freezing December shows came flooding back for me as the band revived Neutrinos classics like Shake The Egg, and Heaven Is A Place In Your Heart. They leave their Suffield audience with a surreal vocal cover of the Star Trek theme. It was a Neutrinos gig, Jim, but not necessarily as we know it.
Jah Wobble was another revelation. Know to most of us as the bass player from John Lydon's post-Sex Pistols band Public Image Ltd, Jah Wobble & Family collectively delivered a set that featured both his wife, Zi-Lan Liao, and two of his sons in the line-up. The result was a virtuosic display of bass playing and traditional Chinese melody and rhythm patterns, delivered on an astonishing array of stringed and percussion instruments, from amid a stage absolutely crammed with players and kit.
A full weekend of music, eating and drinking followed, with Lacons ales, hog roast and tapas featuring largely in my diet over the next two days, and with each day’s live music programme packed with a programme of local, national, and international names. Saturday afternoon began with local psych-folk collective Black Magick Caravan, including members of local psych legends Floral Image in the line-up. Robin Evans' post-apocolypt-a-billy band Snakemilk, and Cromer's Marc Valentine (formerly of The Last Great Dreamers) provided further locally-sourced content. Essex husband-and-wife duo The Tuppenny Bunters sowed the seeds for further late-afternoon audience dancing, with the floor filling to the sounds of both Southampton's The Black Kat Boppers and Birmingham-born Dom Glynn & His Sunday Best. On a Saturday. Real-life Oregon cowgirl punk outfit Jenny Don't & The Spurs rounded up plenty of new fans with their early-evening hoe-down, before making way for Saturday night headliner, Little Barrie. Led for over 25 years by guitarist Barrie Cadogan, Little Barrie were born in Nottingham over twenty-five years ago. Really impressive, and as tight as catgut as a band, leader Cadogan has worked with everybody from Paul Weller to Primal Scream. For guitar-music aficienados, it was the perfect way to end the first full day of the festival.
Sunday got off gently, as it should, with an opening set from Norwich's Arthur Black and band, an outfit that just sound better and better each time I hear them. Next is local legend Big Steve Arlene and Friends, and then Lassie, an intriguing pairing of familiar Norwich faces Emily Winng and Camille Dávila. Last time out together was the courtyard of the Bridewell Museum as part of this year's Norwich Lanes Fayre, where the acoustics were just sublime. At Suffield, shaded from the afternoon sun by the roof of the Suffield marquee, they were still well cool.
Savannah Gardner was raised in California by English parents, and her uniquely placed take on American country provides a bewitching blend of transatlantic influences, especially when joined by her band, The Recovering Good Girls. As different as chalk is to cheese, London-based Oh! Gunquit are a gloriously trashy five-piece led by hoola-hooping, whip-cracking, trumpet-playing Tina Swasey. Not afraid to leave the safety of the stage, Swasey takes audience participation to the next level. Great fun. As are The Courettes, an exotic wall-of-sound duo made up of married couple Flávia and Martin Couri, who rapidly endear themselves to their late-afternoon audience of Sunday revellers. Whilst Danish drummer Martin diligently sticks behind his kit, Brazilian-born singer Flávia is off into the audience, taking her guitar with her. The Courettes certainly know how to bring a party to the ¡Fiesta!
Sunday night headliner is the irrepressible Bob Log III, a legend in his own jumpsuit, a crash-helmeted cacophany of chaos, whose stage highlights include getting the audience to turn bread into toast, getting them to blow up party balloons so that he could 'stamp on your air', and emptying a bottle of Prosecco into a beach inflatable, which is then passed around the audience. In between, he also plays some pretty cool blues guitar.
So, there you have it. North Norfolk's greatest ¡Fiesta! weekend ever, hosted by one of the coolest rural gastropubs in the region, and attracting a crowd who certainly know how to party. Thanks to the Suffield Arms, again, for being the perfect hosts of this debauched musical weekend of wonderfulness, and to all their staff and security who were so friendly throughout. The music, the beer, and the food was all wonderful. The trip home to Norwich was a painless door-to-door experience, with the last train from Gunton railway station departing just after the 23.00 live music curfew. Otherwise, car parking was free, children under 14 were free, and dogs were free. One chap even took his pet parrot.
Finally, I would ask you this. Why would you want to spend well over £300 for a frenetic, and at times frustrating, weekend at a certain major Suffolk festival, becoming irritated and frustrated by the crowds, the crush and the dust, and still end up missing half the acts that you really wanted to see? The answer, my friends, is obvious. It is Suffield Summer ¡Fiesta! ,where none of the above apply.
With only the finest musical acts, hand picked by Rupert Orton, and placed on a single stage, right in front of you, and yet still within reach of both the bar and the toilets, it does not get any easier than this Plus, the Suffield Arms has the tastiest festival food and drink options that you are ever likely to come across anywhere. And, on top of that, you still get to make it home and sleep in your own bed each night, having enjoyed the finest of everything, and missed absolutely nothing. As they say in Suffield, ¡Viva la Fiesta!
