Town Folk Festival 2026 is doubling down on intimacy, curiosity and the thrill of stumbling across an artist you immediately want to follow home. Returning to Djaara Country in Castlemaine this November, the regional Victorian festival has unveiled its first 21 artists for 2026.
Leading the charge is Aldous Harding, whose strange, shape-shifting songwriting continues to make her one of the most compelling figures in contemporary folk music, alongside the endlessly road-worn romanticism of Kevin Morby. Elsewhere, Dutch psych travellers YĪN YĪN bring their hypnotic instrumental grooves to regional Victoria, while Melbourne favourites Folk Bitch Trio continue their steady rise from local cult heroes to international festival regulars.
There’s also the long-awaited Australian debut of UK indie-folk outfit Flyte, the stark emotional storytelling of New York songwriter Allegra Krieger, and the sunburnt reggae pulse of Docker River Band. Closer to home, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever, Way Dynamic and Romy Vager reinforce the festival’s reputation for balancing international names with some of the country’s most consistently inventive local artists.
Spread across venues including The Bridge Hotel, Shedshaker Taproom and Boomtown Winery, Town Folk has quietly carved out its own identity over the past six years. There’s no sense of excess here, no sprawling campsite apocalypse or endless queues. Instead, the festival leans into community, local produce and the pleasure of wandering between stages with no fixed plan, discovering artists in real time rather than through an autoplay recommendation.
The full first announcement also features Bud Rokesky, Darren Hanlon, Emily Lubitz, Hannah Cameron, Immy Owusu, Jordie Lane, Minna, Nat Pavlovic, Snowy Band, Sunny Morris and Winter McQuinn, rounding out a lineup that feels exploratory without drifting into obscurity for obscurity’s sake.
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