Set to take over some of the city’s most beloved venues, Manchester Folk Festival returns in a fortnight! Moving from its regular October slot, the event will run from Thursday 20th to Sat 22nd March, bringing with it some of the most renowned and exciting names from across the folk spectrum. Festivalgoers will also have the opportunity to take part in a wonderfully unique programme including sessions, Swedish Mouth Singing, Morris dancing and spoon carving.
From sixteen-piece ensemble One World Orchestra to sea shanty sensations The Longest Johns, from indie folk icons Stornoway to outstanding emerging artists, the programme boasts three days of the finest contemporary and traditional folk, roots and acoustic music that England has to offer.
Today, Manchester Folk Festival is thrilled to announce further acts joining the line-up, including Grace Smith, Greater Manchester Youth Folk Ensemble, St Catherine’s Child, Filkin’s Drift, Ed Blunt, Anna McLuckie, Lucy Grubb and even more artists performing as part of The Copper Bar’s free programme.
This year’s iconic host venues for Manchester Folk Festival are Band on the Wall, Hallé St Peters, Night & Day, The Castle, Hallé at St Michael’s, The Stoller Hall, New Century Hall, The Smithfield Market Tavern, Manchester Craft & Design Centre and Social Refuge.
Alongside headline performances from Cara Dillon, Bernard Butler, Katherine Priddy, Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings, The Deep Blue, Nick Cope and more, the festival is also proud to offer free traditional singarounds and sessions – where musicians gather to play traditional tunes for themselves and their listeners – as well as a spectacular Morris dancing programme.
Find out more about the sessions, featuring the University of Manchester Folk & Ceilidh Society, Queer As Folk, Gaslamp Sunday Singaround and Scribbling Town, here, and the Morris dancing displays, featuring Blackstone Edge Rapper, Saddleworth Morris Men, Wharfedale Wayzgoose Border Morris and Roots Morris, here.
On Saturday 22nd March, the festival will also host its ever-popular workshops, offering attendees the chance to learn the basics of spoon carving or the fascinating age-old jewellery technique of cuttlefish casting at Manchester Craft & Design Centre. Additionally, participants can join a stimulating folk singing and sharing event with the North Atlantic Song Convention (NASC), where they can explore Swedish mouth music with the acclaimed vocal group Kongero and Scottish Gaelic song with Brian Ó hEadhra.
Festivalgoers can also experience One World Orchestra (OWO), an electrifying sixteen-piece ensemble with one bold musical vision. Featuring musicians with lived experience of displacement, who share heritage with countries currently in conflict and are now based in the UK, OWO brings together languages, traditions and sublime sounds in a mesmerising, multi-layered performance.
Thanks to a partnership between Akacia Productions and English Folk Expo to enhance cross-cultural exchange between the UK and Tunisia, Tunisian-Dutch band BROUA will support OWO, showcasing truly unique compositions that fuse traditional Arab music with Mediterranean and contemporary influences.
Flying the flag for their home city, South Manchester’s eleven-piece outfit Brown Wimpenny will weave traditional music from the British Isles and beyond into a vibrant web of jigs, reels, drones and choral harmonies. Meanwhile, the rapidly rising artist Caoilfhionn Rose will conjure immersive soundscapes, beautifully blending together piano, synths, saxophone, a live rhythm section and otherworldly ambient samples.
A collaboration between ‘Manchester’s finest son,’ Robbie Cavanagh and Canadian alt-country artist Lawrence Maxwell is also a very special pan-Atlantic project worth looking out for on Saturday 22nd March. This unique partnership arose through a collaboration between Manchester Folk Festival and Music PEI (Canada).
Manchester Folk Festival acts as the host for English Folk Expo, an international music industry showcase for the most exciting artists from or based in England. Running parallel to the festival, it welcomes 200 delegates from across the world and allows attendees access to networking opportunities, a trade fair and exclusive private performances. There is still time for artists and industry representatives to register as delegates here.
Individual tickets for all performances are available, alongside festival wristbands which grant holders access to all performances, allowing them to tailor their experience to their tastes and switch effortlessly between intimate spaces and main stages. Wristband perks for 2025 also include access to exclusive concerts, an opening reception and a singing workshop with Jon Boden (T&Cs apply).
Explore The Full Festival Line-up:
The full list of artists appearing across Manchester Folk Festival 2025 is: Jon Boden & The Remnant Kings, Cara Dillon, Stornoway, The Longest Johns, Katherine Priddy, Bernard Butler, Ferocious Dog, The Deep Blue, Nick Hart & Tom Moore, Holly Clarke, Nick Cope, Cohen Braithwaite-Kilcoyne, Josienne Clarke, The John Martyn Project, Peter’s Field, Culverake, Sam Carter, Amelia Coburn, Caoilfhionn Rose, The Magpies, Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver, Yoshika Colwell, One World Orchestra, Red Sky July, BROUA, Germa Adan, Miranda Sykes & Jim Causley, Hannah Sanders & Ben Savage, Robbie Cavanagh & Lawrence Maxwell, Dominie Hooper, Brazen, Fran & Flora, Lily Lyons, Sam Kelly, Detta Kenzie, Memorial, Luke Jackson, Brown Wimpenny, Oli Matthews Band, John Kelly, Remorae, Honey and the Bear, Captain of the Lost Waves, Hector Gannet, 3 Daft Monkeys, RE:VULVA, Jaywalkers, R.AGGS, Grace Smith, Greater Manchester Youth Folk Ensemble, St Catherine’s Child, Filkin’s Drift, Ed Blunt, Anna McLuckie, Lucy Grubb, Macharia, Hamsaz Ensemble and more.
https://manchesterfolk.com/whats-on/
English Folk Expo and Manchester Folk Festival are proud to be in their seventh year with Keychange: a global network and movement working towards gender equality in the music industry.
About Manchester Folk Festival:
Established in 2017, Manchester Folk Festival moved to the Northern Quarter and Ancoats in 2023, after previously being held at HOME. Its seventh edition attracted 3500 attendees across over thirty concerts in a variety of legendary live venues surrounding the festival hub, Band on the Wall. Previous artists have included Billy Bragg, Afro Celt Sound System, Tom Robinson Band, The Breath, John Bramwell, Tunng, Eliza Carthy, John Smith, The Unthanks, Kate Rusby, Tom Robinson Band, Will Varley, Martin Carthy and This Is The Kit.
About Sound Roots:
Sound Roots is a registered charity that helps the independent music sector to thrive and grow. As the Arts Council of England’s leading organisation for providing career pathways into the folk, roots and acoustic music commercial industries, it supports the sector through a variety of projects, including the annual Manchester Folk Festival and its parallel industry showcase, English Folk Expo (EFEx). EFEx is the country’s biggest conference of the global folk music scene, connecting 200 industry specialists from 20+ countries who bring an estimated £10m market value. Sound Roots also runs an Artist Mentoring Pathway, collaborates with export organisations worldwide on initiatives including Global Music Match and produces The Official Folk Albums Chart with The Official Charts Company. In September 2024, Sound Roots launched Sound Roots Connect, a unique online community for artists and music industry personnel.
Manchester Folk Festival is produced by Sound Roots in partnership with So It Is Arts Ltd. It is funded by Arts Council England and Greater Manchester Combined Authority.
Festival website: www.manchesterfolk.com
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