These 10 acts are why The River Folk Festival deserves a permanent spot on your festival calendar.
From Blak music matriarchs to a Japanese shamisen virtuoso, The River Folk Festival’s 2026 program spans three days across multiple venues in Warburton, and this is the shortlist worth building your weekend around.
The River Folk Festival
- 2-4 October
- Multiple venues across Warburton, Yarra Valley VIC
- Tickets here
Check out our gig guide, our festival guide, our live music venue guide and our nightclub guide. Follow us on Instagram here.
Stiff Gins
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Wiradjuri/Yorta Yorta woman Kaleena Briggs and Yuwaalaraay woman Nardi Simpson make up Stiff Gins, Australia’s longest-performing Indigenous female group and genuine matriarchs of the Blak music scene.
Expect breathtaking harmonies, warm storytelling and language woven through folk and roots songwriting. Their latest record, Crossroads, produced by Syd Green, is a finalist for Best First Nations Album at the NSW Music Prize.
Natalie Haas (USA)
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Widely credited with putting the cello on the map of contemporary celtic music, Natalie Haas brings a genre-blurring tone shaped by everything from classical training to two decades of collaboration.
She spent 26 years and eight albums touring alongside Alasdair Fraser, plays regularly with her fiddling sister Brittany, and has guested on more than 100 records across the folk world.
Hanneke Cassel (USA)
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Hanneke Cassel has spent over 20 years reshaping what modern fiddle playing can sound like, fusing Scottish traditions from the Isle of Skye and Cape Breton with Americana influences.
On stage she’s known for a generous, magnetic energy that makes her performances feel like a shared celebration rather than a showcase.
Noriko Tadano
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Currently the reigning solo Australian Folk Musician of the Year, Noriko Tadano is a shamisen virtuoso and traditional Japanese vocalist who’s taken her music everywhere from busking on the street to a solo slot at the Sydney Opera House.
Her creative practice stretches into acting, theatre and sound art, always centred on connection and cultural difference.
Emily-Rose and the Wild
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Three distinct songwriting voices collide in this luminous new project. Emily-Rose and Parvyn, both fixtures of the Australian jazz and folk scenes, are joined by rising Sydney pianist Ofri, plus string players Holly Downes, Chris Stone and Catie Alison.
Together they build cinematic, textured soundscapes out of voice, piano, strings and subtle electronics.
Homebru
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Sibling act Homebru hail from lutruwita/Tasmania and specialise in intricate, fiery contemporary celtic folk.
Their sets are punchy and vibrant one minute, refined and detailed the next, making them just as suited to a room of wild dancers as one full of quietly attentive folk purists.
Ernest Aines
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A multi-award-winning singer-songwriter, Ernest Aines blends folk, indie and alternative influences with poetic, intricate guitar work.
He’s toured Australia, the UK, Ireland and the US off the back of his debut album Spiral Bound, building a name for intimate, disarming shows that draw rooms into total silence.
Stringmania
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Stringmania is the festival’s residential string music camp, built around ear-learning classes in fiddle, cello and double bass alongside electives in rhythm, dance, improvisation and songwriting.
The week wraps with a celebratory public concert where campers take the stage to share what they’ve built with the wider festival community.
River Folk Restrung
Orchestrated by Mickey and Michelle, River Folk Restrung takes performers from across the festival program and reworks their music for a full string orchestra and harp. Drawing on players from across the country, past editions have reimagined sets from Scott Cook, Ngaiire, The Maes, Lucy Wise, Parvyn, The Crooked Fiddle Band and Pirritu.
Joel Havea and the Famili Choir
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Tongan-Australian artist Joel Havea leads this new project reworking traditional Tongan songs passed down through his own family, some nearly 100 years old, alongside new arrangements of his own catalogue.
Performed by a small vocal ensemble, it’s an intimate story of migration, identity and belonging told through close harmony and acoustic instrumentation.
The River Folk Festival
Beyond the headline sets, the weekend’s program spans an opening night showcase concert at The Arts Centre Warburton on the Friday, the Sisters of Song women’s showcase celebrating women in music, and a closing director’s concert on the Sunday.
Festivalgoers can also expect the return of the Valley Market, showcasing local and ethical artisan goods, plus a dedicated children’s space for the younger folk fans in the family.
For more information, head here.
This article was made in partnership with The River Folk Festival.
