It is the official start of the festival season – a chance to blow away the cobwebs of winter and enjoy some top-notch live music inside and outdoors.

The Oxford Folk Weekend is a highlight of the city’s cultural calendar, but has a reputation reaching far beyond the ring road for the quality of its line-up and its timing, in the middle of spring – when all red-blooded folkies emerge from their slumber, grab their fiddles, guitars and tankards and sing of the green wood, fair maidens and all things wholesome.

This year’s spectacular takes place from April 15-17, and features its best line-up so far – with the likes of Martin Carthy, Kathryn Roberts, Sean Lakeman, Emily Portman and Coope, Boyes and Simpson. Then there are the many emerging and local artists – and, of course, morris dancers.

In fact, morris dancing is a big part of the event, officially known by the name Folk Weekend: Oxford.

When the Oxford Folk Festival cancelled at short notice in 2011, it was the morris dancers who kept the spirit alive, hosting their own events outside pubs and in streets and squares. They still come – visiting sides from as far afield as Lancashire clashing sticks and pint pots with local dancers, such as the men of City of Oxford, Charlbury and Abingdon.

Unlike most festivals, which take place behind fences for a select bunch of ticket holders, the Folk Weekend is a democratic spectacular, a city centre music and dance takeover, with impromptu sing-alongs breaking out in venues and even pubs, free events for children in the Pitt Rivers Museum, and those morris dancers popping up all over the place. Many of the gigs are free too.

“It’s a big community event,” says festival director Cat Kelly – a singer and fiddle player from Stanton Harcourt.

“Although mostly rooted in folk, acoustic, singer-songwriters and world music, there is pretty much something for everyone to come along and enjoy.”

And that means all ages too. “It’s not the kind of thing you bring your kids along to and then sit around getting bored – nor something you have to drag children to because there’s nothing for them to do.”

Musical highlights include the aforementioned Martin Carthy – widely regarded as one of the country’s finest singers and interpreters of traditional music. Awarded the MBE in 1998 for services to English music, this national folk treasure is joined by Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman, performing as a duo; singer-songwriter Emily Portman and her trio; Coope, Boyes and Simpson, who return with more close-harmony singing about war, peace and travel; harpist Rachel Newton; Hannah James' JigDoll; Megson; The Simon Care Trio, Tobias Ben Jacob & Lukas Drinkwater;and Stornoway spin-off Count Drachma.

Other Oxfordshire artists include Tom Blackburn, Ben Avison, Small & Gold, Irwing-Brown-Acty, The Skeptics, Kismet, and those (landlocked) masters of the sea shanty – Short Drag Roger.

“This is the start of the festival season. There are no clashes and it’s a nice time of year. Everybody is waking up after the winter and looking for something fun to do. And the great thing is, this is not weather-dependent as so much of it goes on in inside the venues.”

“I'm exceptionally proud of the fantastic programme we have pulled together this year,”she goes on“Our headline artists are award-winning performers, and they will be ably supported by a host of superb acts, including, as always, a large number of fantastic local artists.”

In keeping with Cat’s stated aim of including as many people as possible, there are events and workshops laid on for musicians and members of the public with special needs – including a session on music technology, which stands in contrast to the generally acoustic (though amplified) nature of the rest of the bill.

Again, the byword, says Cat, is‘community’.

“The Oxford Folk Festival was a large scale event. But when it pulled the plug five years ago a few of decided to cobble something together but make it more of a community uprising event. The main idea was to make it very community focussed rather than a high-profile festival.

“Our aim is to bring music, arts and dancing to as many people as we can, with lots of free events as well as things for those with special needs.”

Then there are the ceilidhs – traditionally the best-loved parts of the event, and taking place this year in St Barnabas Church, Jericho.

“Oxford has a very active folk scene but also a very broad one,”says Cat. “That means there is more than just traditional music. If people send a recording and we like it, we book them.

“There is no particular thing we are looking for – it is just a case of choosing things that work in particular spaces.

“We have people coming to the ceilidhs who don’t go anywhere else – and who have as much fun getting the dances wrong as getting them right! People want to have a good time, a couple of pints of real ale and a giggle.”

As well as St Barnabas and the Pitt Rivers, there is music in the Deaf & Hard of Hearing Centre in St Ebbe’s, The Wesley Memorial Methodist Church, St Columba’s Church in Alfred Street, and the Ashmolean Museum lecture theatre.

Morris dancing takes place in front of the museums, at Blackwell’s, outside The Bear and – for the first time – the redesigned Frideswide Square.

Cat has another reason to be excited for this year’s event; she will be premiering a piece of music she has written especially for the weekend – a spring carol called Green and Gold – which will be performed at an opening event in front of the Ashmolean on the Friday.

And she encouraged everyone – not just folkies – to come along. “It’s honest, relaxed and with great music,”she said. “And there’s real ale!”

What is there not to like.

Folk Weekend: Oxford runs from April 15-17. Weekend season tickets are £62 (£57 concessions), day season tickets start at £28. Tickets for individual events are also available. Go to folkweekendoxford.co.uk