It is our great pleasure to announce that multi Grammy Award winning Rhiannon Giddenswill be joining us for two incredible concerts at Port Fairy Folk Festival in 2020. She will be joined by Italian pianist and percussionist Francesco Turrisi. Together, these incredible multi instrumentalists will launch their album There Is No Other, and take you on a musical and storytelling sojourn that crosses and explores the folk traditions of many cultures.
“These songs are as much about place as they are time, and it’s impressive how seamlessly Giddens and Turrisi can blend Arabic, African, Italian, and Americana sounds.” – No Depression
Joining them on our magnificent bill for 2020 is iconic and pioneering Australian artist Neil Murray, who is one of Australia’s finest singer/songwriters, with a career spanning decades from his work as founding member of the Warumpi Band to his stunning solo career.
We are also delighted to welcome powerhouse Melbourne based duo This Way North, Cat Leahy & Leisha Jungalwalla, who are a tour de force and have taken Australia, Canada and New Zealand by storm.
Grace Petrie, a stunning folk singer, songwriter and activist from Leicester, England, also makes her festival debut. Her unique takes on life, love and politics, combined with her warmth and wit, have delighted audiences far and wide, and recently she toured with Billy Bragg and has collaborated with some of the most respected names in folk, including Leon Rosselson, Roy Bailey and Peggy Seeger.
But wait …. there is more…. from South Africa we present charismatic guitar savant Sibusile Xaba who reframes maskandi and the avant garde into his own humanist manifesto. With a vocal style that is part dreamscaping and part ancestral invocation, Xaba divines as opposed to plainly singing. Combined with a guitar style that is rooted in expressive picking, Xaba's music shatters the confines of genre, taking only the fundamentals from mentors such as Madala Kunene and Dr Philip Tabane and imbuing these with a mythology and improvisational intensity all of his own.
Discover more about these incredible artists. You can only see them in one place on one glorious long weekend, at your 44th Port Fairy Folk Festival.
Early bird tickets on sale now.
