Port Fairy Folk Festival

Port Fairy Folk Festival drops first artist lineup for 50 year anniversary

50 years of folk appreciation, celebration, and amplification!

On the windswept coastline of south-west Victoria, the Port Fairy Folk Festival prepares to mark a rare milestone: 50 years of music, storytelling and communal gathering. In March 2027, the Festival will celebrate half a century since its inception in 1977, a span defined as much by its artistic breadth as by the enduring sense of belonging it has cultivated across generations.

To help celebrate the major milestone, the first have gathered an impressive lineup to reflect the diverse and deeply passionate players and performers making up the folk scene. The first announcement is led by Alosa, The Burning Hell, Daoirí Farrell, Dlù, Eleanor McEvoy, Grace Petrie, John Butler with band, Joshua Burnside, Kate Rusby, Kutcha Edwards, Mia Dyson, Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission, The Milk Carton Kids, The Settlement, Skerryvore, Tim Easton, and We Mavericks.

Port Fairy Folk Festival

When: 5-8 March 2027

Where: Port Fairy Township

Lineup

Alosa (ESP/CAT)

The Burning Hell (CAN)

Daoirí Farrell (IRE)

Dlù (SCO)

Eleanor McEvoy (IRE)

Grace Petrie (ENG)

John Butler with band

Joshua Burnside (IRE)

Kate Rusby (ENG)

Kutcha Edwards

Mia Dyson

Mick Thomas’ Roving Commission

The Milk Carton Kids (USA)

The Settlement

Skerryvore (SCO)

Tim Easton (USA)

We Mavericks

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From modest beginnings, the Festival has grown into one of the world’s most respected folk gatherings, drawing audiences and artists from across continents while remaining firmly anchored in Port Fairy’s village-scale intimacy. Its evolution has been guided by a volunteer committee and a devoted network of community stewards, whose work has ensured the event retains its founding spirit of connection, participation and shared cultural life.

What distinguishes Port Fairy most distinctly is its generational continuity. Families who once arrived as children, barefoot in the dust of early festival grounds, now return with children and grandchildren in tow. The result is a living archive of memory and music, woven into the town’s streets, halls and coastal air each Labour Day long weekend.

Early ticket demand for the 50th anniversary edition has already been unprecedented, signalling the depth of attachment audiences hold for the Festival and the significance of this cultural marker.

Program Director Justin Rudge reflected on the milestone as both stewardship and celebration, noting the responsibility of carrying the Festival into its next chapter while honouring its legacy. The 2027 program, he said, would balance returning favourites with first-time visitors, international voices with local storytellers, and established icons with contemporary innovators.

The first artist announcement offers a broad sweep of that intent, bringing together a lineup that spans tradition, reinvention and global folk expression.

Together, the announcement signals both continuity and expansion, reflecting a Festival that has long balanced reverence for tradition with openness to contemporary folk expression in all its forms. Further artists and anniversary programming will be revealed in the months ahead, alongside special events and archival activations designed to revisit defining moments from the Festival’s five-decade history.

The 50th Port Fairy Folk Festival will take place over the Labour Day long weekend, 5–8 March 2027. Tickets and accommodation options are now available via the Festival’s official channels here.