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Fabulous Festival Artist Roundup 25/26

Saturday 29th November 2025

Here we are, just a month out from Whare Flat Folk Festival #50 - can you believe it? It seems an age since we were sifting through the treasure trove of applications from fantastic musicians, lamenting that we couldn’t host them all. After much anguish we settled on this wonderful and varied line-up to delight you, some of the very best from around the world, across the country and locally.

Old Man Luedecke is sure to be one of the festival’s favourites. That’s the stage name of two-time JUNO Award-winning Canadian singer-songwriter and masterful banjo player, Chris Luedecke. Known for his narrative-driven folk songs, he enchants audiences with his unique blend of dry humor, captivating storytelling, and a warm, authentic sound. 

The trio Dragkroka can’t fail to delight with their powerful dance groove in the Swedish tradition and the wonderfully rich, complex sound of the nykelharpe, played by Rasmus Hemström. Often described as having a reverberant and ethereal quality, it combines elements of both a bowed string instrument like a violin and a keyed instrument like a hurdy-gurdy. Alfred Bergkvist plays cittern and Henry Burtonwood completes the trio on fiddle.

Nobody will be able to resist the sheer energy and authenticity of Jennifer Reid. A celebrated performer from Lancashire, she specializes in researching and singing 19th-century Industrial Revolution broadside ballads and dialect work songs. She incorporates traditional clog dancing into her engaging a cappella performances, bringing a forgotten slice of working-class industrial history back to life for modern audiences.

Neil Adam and Judy Turner, known as the duo Adam & Turner, started playing together in 1995, after years of playing with groups as diverse and well known in their homelands as Silly Wizard in Scotland and Paradiddle in Australia. Judy started the Melbourne Scottish Fiddle Club in 1995. It still flourishes, and she has worldwide friendships in the world of Scottish fiddle playing. They previously appeared at the Whare Flat Folk Festival in 2005 with their family band. Among their various festival activities they’ll be running the festival orchestra this year. 

From around Aotearoa we also have a selection of gems for you. These include RD1, from Nelson, a trio featuring the infectiously energetic and talented Craig Denham along with fine musicians Nathan Torvik and Callie Crider, playing a mix of Appalachian, Americana, Swing, Gospel, and original songs. 

Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington-based group Triske, with the fine musicianship and creativity of Em Griffiths, Ceara McAuliffe Bickerton and Bob McNeill, bring an eclectic mix of original songs and delicate traditional songs interspersed with foot-stomping dance tunes from Ireland, Scotland and Brittany.

We’re delighted to welcome, from Otautahi Christchurch, two solo performers. Ellen Barry is a singer and songwriter blending vocal melodies and poetic verse with fingerpicking guitar. She has a special interest in the holistic, health benefits of expressing ourselves through sound and song. Sound explorer, Yujing Cui, mixes Eastern and Western sounds using the traditional pipa and guitar, creating music which blends folk with hints of her indie rock past. 

Two local Otepoti Dunedin five-piece bands provide the biggest line-ups of the festival with swing band Skin & Bone performing Great American Songbook standards and their own originals, and Shaky Hollows, the alt-country band with a wistfully melancholic sound. In true small town vibes, these two bands even share a fiddle player!

We’re delighted that the festival choir will, this year, be run by Jude Madill and son Joseph Coleman, aka the Madillionettes, from Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington. Daily rehearsals will culminate in a performance on the main stage in the final concert of the festival.

 

 

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