Our 20th Celebration Bash is a special year, and to commemorate we have our best-ever lineup of stellar international folk-roots acts, a touch of nostalgia as we look back, and an exciting glimpse of the future of folk, roots and world music as we look forward with some of Australia’s best young talent. We’re perhaps a bit more back-to-the-roots in this birthday year, maybe getting a bit closer back to our origins as a folk festival, but as you’ll see that’s no limitation on the amount of fun and musical joy we’re offering you. Diversity, quality and entertainment rule as they always have.
I’m especially delighted to welcome to our stage this year a personal hero: the legendary blues-ragtime guitar picker Stefan Grossman, along with a top cast of international folk-roots artists. From the burgeoning English folk scene comes Seth Lakeman, one of the new-generation pioneers who has taken trad folk (and new songs in that proud tradition) out of the clubs and into the Mercury Prize mainstream. From the other end of England, Chris While and Julie Matthews have recently added the BBC Folk Awards Best Duo to their great songs and killer harmonies. From Canada we bring powerhouse singer Nathan Rogers with his trio Dry Bones, and virtuoso fiddler and step dancer April Verch, and from Sweden the Mattias Perez trio, capped off by quintessential street theatre comedy from much loved Fairbridge favourites The Chipolatas, and irresistible dance floor grooves from Scotland’s pioneers of acid croft, the vibrant Shooglenifty.
Looking back, Fairbridge veterans can enjoy an opening night of nostalgia with two acts who have been mainstays of our stages almost back to our very beginning – The Fling and the Ten Cent Shooters. This year is a bit of a reunion of old friends and favourites – as well as these cats and the Chipolatas, we bring back hit acts from previous years including Jugularity, Totally Gourdgeous, Linsey Pollak and the reunited MacClarke’s Gray Vest, along with another long-mooted reunion that is still under construction.
It’s not all backward-looking, as Australia has its own folk revival with a swag of hot young players around the country. We are proud to bring you Victoria’s sensational Simpson Three, winners of the young performers’ award at the National Folk festival last year, Adelaide’s Jeri Foreman Trio and our own Lucy Wise with accordion whizz Mischa Herman; all spectacular young players who have grown up in the tradition and who are now busy taking it to whole new places. The future is in safe hands.
Finally in this quick run-down I’m delighted to tell you that one of Australia’s most talented and totally unclassifiable acts, My Friend the Chocolate Cake, will be gracing our stages at last. We’re thrilled to have them, and we’re sure you’ll be thrilled to hear them.
That’s a taste of what’s to come – keep an eye on the site and our Facebook page over the coming weeks as we tell you more about our fabulous bill, and about the spectacular Finale Concert and massed orchestra (all of you lot) that we are planning to cap it off with.
Steve Barnes
Artistic Director
