There will be plenty to party about at the 2026 National Folk Festival. Photos: NFF.
The National Folk Festival is back in the black, despite a dip in attendance at this year’s event, as its program for the 60th anniversary in 2026 takes shape with a focus on bridging the cultural divides that have emerged in recent times.
Festival Director Anne Denzer said the 2025 annual report showed that the festival posted a $100,000 surplus this year, thanks mainly to $150,000 in government grants. However, even without these grants, the result would have been a far cry from the disastrous $450,000 operating deficit of 2024.
Ms Denzer said the ACT Government had just awarded the festival a $30,000 grant, and an application for another Commonwealth grant was still being assessed.
She said 28,000 people attended the festival over its five days, down on the 2024 figure, but it was expected after bad weather on the Monday affected the gate.
She said interest and demand had been strong for the anniversary event next year, with Early Bird tickets sold out. In response to feedback, a new discounted day ticket will be available from 22 December.
Measures to contain costs, such as a more compact footprint, had put the event on a more sustainable footing, but Mr Denzer hoped grants would continue for a couple more years to help secure its future.
The smaller footprint would continue for the time being, particularly with the conversion of the Fitzroy pavilion into a multicultural community centre, making it unsuitable for amplified music.
“We might look at it for future years, but after Venues Canberra has done significant renovations, it’s even a harder venue for us to use, so we need to do a bit of experimenting with what could work for us,” she said.
However, the small Sam’s Caravan venue would be expanded, with an extra workshop space added in front of the Coorong Pavilion and additional shade provided.
“Moving forward for 2027, if sales are good, we might increase the footprint again,” Ms Denzer said.
The Fagans will reunite in 2026.
The festival has finalised its artist signings, featuring the best of Australian folk, along with international acts, and will be rolling out announcements weekly to maintain interest.
Co-artistic director Chris Stone said that about a quarter of the lineup was still to be announced, including some special guests, “quite big names” in the history of folk music over the past 60 years.
The festival has already announced Australia’s first family of folk, The Fagans, will perform, including separate concerts by Kate Fagan, James Fagan and Nancy Kerr, who will be marking 30 years of playing at the National.
The festival awarded Margaret and Bob Fagan its Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s event.
The Fagans last performed together in 2018.
Mr Stone said that while the festival would draw on its long history for the anniversary, the program would also look forward with a strong youth brigade and a tapestry of world music traditions.
He said the Young Folk program, which supports the next generation of artists, attracted three times the number of applicants it had previously.
“One of the great definitions of folk music is that there are three generations of people involved in it, so there is actually some genuine transmission down the line,” Mr Stone said.
“If you lose a generation, and there’s a gap, then that’s how traditions break.”
The festival has also invited artists from Palestinian, Ukrainian and Jewish traditions in a celebration of peace, resurrecting the Concert for Peace concept, first organised by Keith McKenry with the slogan an “Island of sanity in a crazy world”.
Dabke & Tatreez will celebrate Palestinian culture.
Songs of Peace, curated by Canberra’s Fred Smith, will feature concerts that bring together artists from diverse folk traditions across the weekend.
Dabke & Tatreez will present a program of Palestinian music and dance, featuring artists from Gaza alongside Turkish, Turkish-Cypriot, Syrian, and Indonesian collaborators.
“This project exists to protect and preserve the history, arts and cultural heritage of the Palestinian people. Some of the works we present are centuries old,” said group director Ayşe Göknur Shanal.
The ensemble includes artists connected to the Edward Said National Conservatorium of Music, which was destroyed during the recent conflict in Gaza.
“As we see heritage being destroyed, there is urgency to preserve culture, music and history, which is now facing erasure. Music is the best form of historical record, and to bring awareness,” Shanal said.
The Mar’yana Jaga Band will offer workshops in Ukrainian dance music, as well as exploring connections between Ukrainian and Indian traditions.
Also appearing will be Sydney klezmer group Chutney, bringing joyous Jewish folk music and leading a mass Hora, a giant circle dance.
Mr Stone said the artistic directors’ team had adopted a slogan of “looking back to move forward”.
“We’re not just sort of wallowing in nostalgia of the 60s,” he said. “We’re looking back and seeing what could be reinvigorated or brought forward as well as celebrated.
“The Concert for Peace idea isn’t ours, we just felt that if we’re going to be looking at what’s happening in the world right now and we want to be responding to it as a community, then it’s a great time to bring it back.”
The 2026 National Folk Festival will run from 2 to 6 April at Exhibition Park in Canberra. To view the latest artist lineup, visit the National Folk Festival.
