This year's National Folk Festival celebrates 30 years of the event taking place on Ngunnawal Country in Canberra, and it's shaping up to be a phenomenal occasion.
In her first year as Artistic Director, Katie Noonan is excited the festival is able to take place and to celebrate this incredible milestone.For it to have endured and grown for this long (the festival began life as the Port Phillip District Folk Music Festival in Melbourne on 11-12 February 1967), the Folk Festival has, and still does, boast an incredible and distinct sense of community.
"It's been community run, it's been completely independent – not a core government funded entity – it's very much a reflection of its people and its times, which is what folk music is," Katie says.
"The fact that a cohort of people gathered in Melbourne in 1967 and wrote a constitution and started a festival and we're still here 55 years later is an extraordinary show of community."
Delve deeper into the 2022 National Folk Festival line-up.
Particularly coming together after the last two years, surviving the tumultuous upheaval to the music industry (let alone the community at large), there are many causes for celebration.
"We're all desperately missing that sense of community that only really a festival can bring, where you find your home, find your family, find your folk," Katie says.
"It is at this large pilgrimage gathering that you do that. You see your mates that you perhaps only see at the National each, they're part of your greater family of music makers and storytellers and lovers of all things folk."
Australian music royalty, to say the least, is on the line-up this year. Uncle Archie Roach for one, and particularly significant as this will be his last concert on Ngunnawal Country.
"We're thrilled and honoured to be the chosen space for him to do his last concert in our nation's capital," Katie says, "which I think is fitting because this is the one capital city that is in First Nations language – Canberra, a Ngunnawal word meaning 'meeting place'.
"I really wanted to signify our history – we started in 1967 and, as the majority of people will know, was the year Australians voted in the referendum in parliament to acknowledge our First Nations families. I wanted to signify that by opening and closing the festival with First Nations royalties.
"Our opening concert is 'Let Love Rule', themed around Uncle Archie's song of the same name, then we finish with Uncle Sammy Butcher, with his son and daughter, from the legendary Warumpi Band.
"Then we raise the roof with Yothu Yindi singing out for a treaty in the 30th anniversary of that song in the 30th anniversary of the festival [on Ngunnawal Country].
"There are a lot of beautiful points of synergy that feel really special."
With so much colour and joy (you can hear it in Katie's voice) being in operation at this year's event, it's easy to foresee the National Folk Festival's operation over the next 30 years.
"I think the Festival is at an interesting stage where a lot of the people that were there in the beginning are no longer with us," Katie says, "and so part of my job is to really awaken and inspire younger people to embrace the ideals of this festival.
"We have a lot of young artists playing, a point of difference, perhaps. And really [we're] wanting to broaden the church of folk.
"I would say the festival has a fairly strong Anglo-Celtic focus in its beginnings because that was the more traditional definition of what is for colonial Australia – but the Australia of today is very different to Australia of 1967.
"We are a beautiful, multicultural experiment gone well. We have an enormous multicultural community to reflect, and that's, I think, an important step to reflect moving forward. That the festival reflects the Australia of today.
"The other main priority is engaging with the Ngunnawal elders, working with them on language and ensuring there is a space for young people to learn from these amazing elders, to learn from their wisdom, knowledge and grace."
National Folk Festival takes place at Exhibition Park In Canberra 14-18 April.
National Folk Festival 2022 Line-up
40 Degrees SouthAfro Moses
Ailsa
Aine Tyrell
Alinta
All Our Exes Live in Texas
All Strings Attached
Ami Williamson
Andrea Kirwin and the Yama-Nui Social Club
Archer
Australian Morris Ring
Balkanski Bus
Banat Amar
Bandaluzia Flamenco
Bangladeshi folk group
Belswagger Morris
Big English Session
Big Sky Mountain
Bill Chambers
Bill Jackson
Black Joak Morris Dancers
Black Mountain String Band
BMC Youth Bush Band
Brandragon Morris
Broadcasters Forum
Bromham
Bruce Watson
Bush Capital Band
Bush Music Club Inc
Bush Traditions Settler Music Sessions
Cabbage Tree Hats - a history
Canberra Contra Club
Canberra Shanty Club
Cape Byron Celtic Dance
Capital Tea Duelling Society
Cassidy-Rae
Cath Russell Kids Music/ How Many Homes
Catherine Britt
Celtic Piping Club
Chaika
Chloe and Jason Roweth
Cigany Weaver
Clairewood Matt
Comhaltas Melbourne
Coral Reid
Couples Tea Dance with Short Dented Potts
Dance-a-mime
Dancers Without Borders
David Hallett
Declan Kelly
Dividing Range Dancers
Eagle & The Wolf
Easter Morning Church Service
Emma Donovan and the Putbacks
EXAUDI
Fabulous Fan Dancers
Fagans Trio
Farewell Dance
Festival Bush Orchestra
Firinn
First Australian Women's Song Book Launch
Flamenco Centre Canberra
Fleassy Malay
Folk Alliance Australia
Folk Dance Canberra
Fred Smith
Gabrielle Journey Jones
Georgia Mooney
Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse
Global Mosaic - A World Fusion Dance Showcase
Green Mohair Suits
Greg Sheehan
Gregory North
Hannah Acfield
Haystack Mountain Hermits
High Ace - Jeff Lang & Alison Ferrier
Irish Joe Lynch
Jacqui Malins
Jason Roweth
Jim & Ingrid Rehle-Williams
Jo Davie
John Peel
Josh Pyke
Judy Small
Jumptown Jammers
Justine Clarke
Kate Ceberano
Kay Proudlove
Keith Wood and Pastrami on Ryebuck
Kelly Brouhaha
Kengugro Australian-Hungarian Folklore Ensemble
Kim Yang Music
King Curly
Kristabelle and the Southern Jubilee Ringers
KUD Razigrana Makedonka
Lightbulb Improv
Linsey Pollak
Lior & Domini- Animal in Hiding
Little Quirks
Lucy Wise & Stephen Taberner
Luke Plumb and Khalida de Ridder
Mal Webb and Kylie Morrigan
Mally Moo Music 4 Minis
Martha Marlow
Maypole with Molly
Melanie Horsnell
Melbourne Colonial Dancers - Introduction to Australian Bush Dancing
Melbourne Songwriters Collective
Melody Pool
Miriam Lieberman Trio
Moir & Co
Montgomery Church
Moonlighting Jug Band
MZAZA
Neil Murray
Nick Rheinberger
Old Time Tea Dance, led by Norm Ellis of the Traditional Social Dance
Omar Musa
Oud Vibrations
Parvyn
Paverty Bush Band
Penelope Swales and the Stranded Assets
Phillip's Dog
Phoenix Collective
Pico's Puppet Palace
PNG Peroveta Singers of Canberra
POP UP CHOIR
Queenie van de Zandt
RareTreats
Renae Stone
Riley Lee
Riley Lee and Cliona Molins
River Suite Orchestra
Robyn Archer
Robyn Sykes
Roger Holmes and His Beautiful Assistants
Ruth Hazleton (with Luke Plumb & Fiona Steele)
Ruth O'Brien
Salvation Jane
Sammy Butcher
Saplings
Sarah and Silas
Sarah Temporal
Savoy Dance
sCanDans
Scroggin
Set In Their Ways
Shaking the Tree choir
Shane Lestideau
Shiny Bum Singers
Solid State Circus
Solidarity Choir
Songs From the Australian Tradition
Songs of the American Civil War
Strange Weather Choir
Stringfiddle with Kira Dowling
Super Rats
Surly Griffin Morris
Sydney English Country Dancers
Tenzin Choegyal
The Bottlers
The Dawn Light
The Funky Fairy
The Good Girl Song Project
The Hauptmann Trio
The Heritage Ball, with the Victorian Heritage Dance Band
The Little Stevies
The Maes
The Maggie Carty Band
The Mountain Dew Band
The Raglins
The Spooky Men's Chorale
The Vegetable Plot
The Water Runners
TSDAV Dance Composers' Competition
Ukestral Voices
Ukulele Death Squad
Uncle Archie Roach
Unexpected Harmony Choir
UPTOWN BROWN
URoC the Ukulele Republic of Canberra
Warehouse Circus Workshops
Warren Fahey
Welcome Dance, with Melbourne Colonial Dancers
Well Hall English Dancers
With One Voice Australia
Woodford Festival of Small Halls: featuring Jack Carty & Charm of Finches
Yothu Yindi
Yyan and Emily
Zulya and The Childen of the Underground
