Photography, Daniel Brunskill
The three-day celebration takes place in January over Auckland Anniversary Weekend (Fri 28th Jan – Mon 31st Jan), welcoming in 2022 with a proudly homegrown lineup!
Auckland Folk Festival arrives at Kumeu Showgrounds for its annual festival, bringing together a unique lineup of NZ’s best to celebrate, sing and dance, for three days of frivolity!
The Festival, renowned for being a unique, all-inclusive celebration, with a genre-bending ‘folk’ music lineup, is ecstatic to be presenting a much needed, safe, 49th Festival this summer. With the big 50th, beckoning in 2023, it’s time to get the celebrations underway!
Spread across its six stages will be French for Rabbits, Wheel of Experience, Luke Thompson, Kerryn Fields, We Mavericks (aus), Ida Lune, O & The Mo and The Swan Sisters to name a few and with more to be announced.
The 2022 Auckland Folk Festival is excited to be bringing people together to celebrate the return to live events and the ability to safely come together to collaborate, consume and congregate.
The festival also continues to be proudly culturally and gender diverse. A further highlight this year will be the immersive experience in our Mill Stage with Songs from the Old Country – featuring performances from the Solomon Islands, Bulgaria, Iran and Serbia among others.
Wheel of Experience will be setting up their very own war tent to perform old New Zealand songs in a completely unique environment within our Village Green.
Peruse the marketplace, replenish and revitalise with our Food Trucks, dance with your children, rest under the trees or watch a spontaneous dance display or jam, with music lovers and friends alike.
“In the weird and difficult world we live in now, getting to programme an event to celebrate the folk community is fortunate. We’re very excited about the artists we’ve lined up for our audience. Coming together in January will be a reward for a long and arduous end to 2021,” artistic director Finn McLennan-Elliott says.
“We strive to present a unique and interesting programme each year and some of the parts to the 2022 festival have been in the works for many years, so we can’t wait for you to discover these with us.”
Whether you are dancing the night away in one of the ceilidhs, or a Balfolk ball, learning how to folk dance, enjoying a concert, participating in a workshop or sharing experiences ‘new & old’ with friends & family, there is something for everyone – young of age and young of heart!
The ever-growing and evolving Kids Stage takes another step forward in 2022 with two amazing guest artists, The Swan Sisters and Simon Stanley (all the way from Nashville, Tennessee).
Children under 10 come free to the festival and we are proud to have a dedicated programme of music and workshops, including nighttime stories, a dedicated Kids Dance programme, kapa haka workshops and a parade.
All marquees are covered but open-sided, and as will be the song of the summer, the festival will be following government advice and looking to implement a vaccine certificate requirement for all attendees, volunteers and contractors eligible for vaccination.
This is in line with the NZ Government’s requirements for all large-scale events throughout the country.
All signs point to Helensville, and you can find the Auckland Folk Festival along that highway in Kumeu, not even twenty minutes from the centre of the city, for a sunny last weekend of January.
First lineup announcement:
French for Rabbits
We Mavericks
Wheel of Experience
Luke Thompson
Kerryn Fields
Criu
Micheal Parmenter
Te Wehi Haka
Alpaca Social Club
Across the Great Divide
The Swan Sisters
Turkey the Bird
O & The Mo
Ida Lune
Monty Bevins
Shimna’s List
Sam Loveridge
Butter Wouldn’t Melt
Simon Stanley
Rhubarb
Gavin & Cara
Ministry of Folk
Songs from the old Country
Ethno Aotearoa
