The River Folk Festival is returning soon to Warburton for its 2024 edition with an exciting new lineup.
Director Sam Watson said they’re really thrilled to bring The River Folk Festival back to the Upper Yarra for another year – and feel very lucky to be in a position to do so, given the current climate for live music events and festivals.
“We absolutely love the lineup this year – we’re bringing some incredible acts to Warburton for the event,” he said.
“Five years is a huge milestone for us, and although 2024 is our fifth edition, it feels like we’ve been doing this for a lot longer (having missed 2 years between 2020 and 2021) – and it’s been an incredible experience: to bring a Festival into a small town in 2018 and watch it grow and flourish with amazing support from our community has been so rewarding.”
This year’s lineup features a great breadth of styles and backgrounds – including the Jimi Hendrix of kora, Gambian musician Amadou Suso; exotic and award-winning French-Balkan inspired Brisbane ensemble MZAZA; proud Ngiyampaa man and First Nations singer-songwriter Pirritu; high-energy, four-piece Australian Celtic group Austral; stirring and heartfelt New Zealand/Melbourne storyteller and songwriter Kerryn Fields, alongside a host of local and regional highlights.
Mr Watson said they’re very lucky in Warburton to have a wonderful community of creatives who value artistic expression and really support live events – and he thinks that’s absolutely the key to the growth and momentum of The River Folk Festival into an annual feature for the Yarra Valley.
“Without such support from the community as patrons, volunteers, artists, and of course local business sponsors, the Festival would have struggled through the last few years, it’s so clear that the Festival is really valued and cherished by locals, and we’ve seen this especially so lately, where, despite the rising costs of living, we have still seen record attendance at our River Folk Sessions events – our 1-night taster events that showcase a bit of River Folk flavour throughout the year,” he said.
“This is a significant milestone for us in itself – to have an audience waiting for the next River Folk event, knowing that many of them will prioritise attending our shows. this is our measure of growth and momentum, of the sustainability of the Festival in our community – to be able to bring incredible artists to Warburton from all over Australia and overseas and know that our audience will turn up every time, passionate and attentive and that feels like a huge blessing for us.”
This year’s event also has very exciting collaborations in the works for this year: the River Folk Restrung project, and the Stringmania Finale Concert. Both collaborative projects will involve the presentation of new material at the Festival, featuring performances unlike any we have presented before. The River Folk Restrung project will present a series of performances from artists on the Festival lineup, backed by a lush string orchestra, scored and conducted by fiddle and harp duo Mickey & Michelle, especially for The River Folk Festival; while the Stringmania Finale Concert will be the culmination performance of the Stringmania Camp held in East Warburton each year, featuring numerous world-class string players alongside a huge string orchestra, playing all manner of folk pieces for strings
Mr Watson said one of the great pleasures of hosting a small folk festival is having such an abundance of incredible acts to choose from.
“The folk music industry in Australia in particular is rich with talented acts, with styles and heritage from all over the world, and it’s a very exciting and rewarding experience to program a festival in this context, he said.
“The integrity and calibre of the artist lineup has always been a focus for us – and rather than program headline acts, we always aim to present a program with depth and variety across multiple venues and spaces, where the strength lies in the program as a collective whole,”
“This creates an event where there is something on offer for everyone – whether you want to dance until late to traditional tunes from all over the world, or sit quietly held in intimate performances from delicate and heartfelt songwriters, or you’re a family with children enjoying activities and the outdoor market.”
2nd Round Weekend Passes + Day Tickets are on sale now at theriverfolkfestival.com
The River Folk Festival 2024 is made possible by the generous support of Creative Australia, Yarra Ranges Council, the Community Bank Warburton and Yarra Junction, and numerous Yarra Valley local business sponsors.
