The 2025 Cygnet Folk Festival is set to take place from January 12th to 14th, bringing a rich blend of international and local talent to Tasmania’s picturesque Huon Valley.

Among the headline acts are UK and Ireland-based performers like Beans on Toast, an Essex-born folk artist; Scottish harpist Chloe Matharu; Elephant Sessions, blending Scottish traditional music with electronica; and Ireland’s Susan O’Neill, known for her haunting, soulful voice. Attendees can expect a vibrant celebration of folk traditions with music, dance, and cultural displays.

DATES & DEETS

The festival offers not only live music performances but also a vibrant array of workshops, street performances, and cultural displays. Here are some of this year’s artists:

Elephant Sessions

Elephant Sessions returns with their latest album, For the Night, which won the BBC Scotland trad album of the year. The chart-topping band from the Highlands of Scotland brings their fusion of electronica and indie folk in an upbeat frenzy of mandolin, fiddle, drums, and bass that will see audiences bouncing and dance floors shaking.

Good Guy Hank

From the harmonious heartlands of Scotland and the musical metropolis of Melbourne, Australia, Good Guy Hank bring all of the heartbreak, joy, and everything in between with soulful voices, lightning mandolin, country fiddle, and three-part harmonies galore! This alternative Scottish-Americana outfit will have you dancing, singing and crying all in the one set of original charismatic bangers!

Harry Bird

Original, entertaining and thought provoking, Harry Bird is a modern day troubadour with a knack for storytelling and “genius song-writing” (RnR Magazine, UK). Expect rhythmic guitar, soul stirring vocals, free-wheeling anecdotes and good humour from this Glasgow based, folk-singing circus and theatre musician steeped in stagecraft, versatility and playfulness.

Susan O’Neill

Susan O’Neill, pictured above, is a songwriter of many depths. With a timeless voice that is equal parts balm and blowtorch, she is audacity personified. She has been a long-time collaborator on the Irish scene, with the release of In The Game, her collaboration album with Mick Flannery, being the most recent.

Chloe Matharu

Chloe Matharu is an award-winning singer songwriter and harpist from the west coast of Scotland. Many of her songs draw on her time as a navigational officer in the Merchant Navy, inspired by the natural world as experienced at sea. On tour she performs solo with her harp, singing in English, Scots and Welsh. 

Beans on Toast

Essex born folk songwriter Beans on Toast is a unique performer. Twisting an age-old genre with a DIY approach and contemporary concerns has earned him the title of a cult figure who tells it like it is. A festival favourite (he’s played Glastonbury every year since 2005) and a prolific writer and performer. He’s written and recorded 17 albums and he’s played every bar, club, venue, pub, festival, party and honky-tonk you can think of.

Interstate performers include Amaidi, Austral, Hat Fitz and Cara, Tim Scanlan and Mana Okubo, and Morrigan & Wilding. 

Local performers include City of Hobart Highland Pipe Band, Jolley Hatters Morris Dancers, The Young Ireland Collective, Grassroots Union Choir of Tasmania, Vince Brophy & Tony Newport, Kernewek Tasmania Songs Tunes and Tales of Cornwall, Fiona Henwood, Matthew Dames, and Anna Talbot. 

Cover picture: High-energy Australian Celtic music band Austral will be performing at Cygnet Folk Festival.