Now in its 33rd year, Swanage Folk Festival is ready to bring music, dance and colour to the town as summer 2025 comes to a close.
From Friday 5th to Sunday 7th September 2025, it promises to be packed with some of the biggest names in UK folk music, the largest gathering of folk dance sides in Britain, and the busiest fringe festival yet.
Bonfire Radicals will be first on the main stage on Friday evening at Sandpit Field
Top acts returning to Swanage
Headline acts on the main stage at Sandpit Field include a fiery fusion of traditional and contemporary folk from Bonfire Radicals, a special performance from banjo virtuoso Kate Griffin alongside Mozambican multi-instrumentalist Matchume Zango.
There is also an appearance from legendary Irish trio Mike McGoldrick, Dezi Donnelly and Tim Edey, and from FolkLaw, who are touring a much anticipated new album in their 15th anniversary year.
Other highlights include Harbottle and Jonas, Tradarrr, Narthen, Folklaw, Katie Hooper and the Bierfass Oompah Band, alongside gigs from Purbeck folk stars The Savage Underdogs and Badgerfox, plus a special appearance from the ever popular Allsort’d choir.
There will also be a return performance from Glastonbury Festival stars Holly Carter and Joe Wilkins, who impressed so much when they played at the Purbeck Folk Club in July – despite Holly forgetting to bring her guitar and having to borrow a replacement – that Swanage Folk Festival signed them up immediately for a festival gig at the Con Club.
While tickets are available to buy for afternoon concerts at The Con Club and for the evening performances on main stage at Sandpit Field, much of the music during the day and around the town is free to listen to.
There will also be dance sides from around the UK performing for free in Swanage, with a procession along Shore Road from 3.30 pm on Saturday 6th September 2025.
Chair of Swanage Folk Festival Jon Baker
“So much more than music”
Festival chair Jon Baker, who moved to Swanage six years ago after two decades of visiting the town to go scuba diving, said:
“Swanage Folk Festival is about so much more than the music – there’s a fantastic atmosphere for the whole weekend, it’s like having the biggest party you can ever imagine and the buzz is incredible!
“The music is brilliant, the town is full of dancers and as I say to people, we fill the town of Swanage with music, dance and smiles for a whole weekend.
“What most people notice when they arrive in town for the festival is that it’s full of really colourful, amazing dancers – there are 65 dance sides appearing this year, it is the biggest of its kind anywhere in the UK, we are really proud of that and we are looking to keep growing it.
“Saturday’s procession along Shore Road is always a highlight, with all of the sides, hundreds of dancers, coming together to fill the seafront with music and movement – though we are hoping for better weather than last year when many of them had to dance with umbrellas!”
When 65 dance sides come together for a procession down Shore Road on the Saturday aftrenoon, it’s quite a sight!
“Huge amount of work to put on a party”
Jon added:
“We moved to Swanage because we just fell in love with the community feel of the town, there are huge numbers of events going on, all community driven, all community led and I just loved that.
“So when we came to live here, we wanted to be part of that community, dived in and I ended up chairing the Swanage Folk Festival – it’s my third year in charge now.
“We have a committee of just 10 people, all volunteers, who organise the festival all through the year, and come the weekend we have another 50 or 60 volunteers to make sure that everything runs smoothly – but we always need more volunteers, you can never have enough!
“It’s a huge amount of work to put on an amazing party once a year – the festival was formed to help keep alive folk music and traditions, but we go far beyond that.
“It costs over £45,000 to run the weekend, but last year, even with the dreadful weather, we raised an extra £7,000 to help local groups and charities. It is brilliant to be able to give that amount of money away as well as bring thousands of people into Swanage over the weekend!”
Swanage Folk Festival committee handed out £7,000 in donations to local charities and good causes in January 2025
Free fringe festival is now huge
Although donations and sales of festival merchandise were down in 2024, because of rain which verged on torrential at times, ticket sales were exceptionally good and the committee was delighted with the total raised of £7,000 for charity – but hope to top it this year, and enjoy better weather as well.
To help get more people involved with the weekend, the free fringe festival has been hugely expanded, from half a dozen events to more than 30 at venues including The Mowlem Showbar, Purbeck Plaza and Swanage Bandstand.
Acts include many Swanage and Purbeck favourites, including the Wareham Whalers, Local Vocals, Savage Underdogs, Greyhound’s Leap, the Dorset Mutineers, the Bere Essentials and Steve Tattum, along with rising local talent like Louis Alberry.
Buskers’ Corner will give visitors to Sandpit Field a chance to join in the musical fun for themselves
Buskers’ Corner is a new experiment
Jon Baker said:
“It is a fantastic selection of additional acts appearing around the town, brought to you by Swanage Folk Festival in partnership with local pubs and bars – they’re all free to attend but we hope that people will show their appreciation by donating.
“Buskers’ Corner is a new experiment for this year – up on Sandpit Field when it goes a little quieter before the evening concerts, we are inviting people to come along and play or sing.
“I suspect that a few of the bands will come along and join in, I guess it will be very organic, a lot of fun and an event which gives people a chance to engage rather than just watch.
“There are a couple of really good sessions at the Con Club concerts, including Nick Parker who has been on tour with The Levellers, Holly Carter who was so amazing at Purbeck Folk Club that we decided we had to have her along to the festival.
“We have a range of workshops going on through the weekend, the wildly popular folk church service at St Mary’s with dancing in the church and lots of dancing in the churchyard afterwards, children’s entertainment and food stands on Sandpit Field, a huge craft fair and so much more!”
The Bierfass Oompah Band, part of the Fringe Festival, will bring the party to Sandpit Field
“Closing party season with a big hurrah”
Jon added:
“There are buskers around the town, we fill the pubs with folk music, we have a 400 seater marquee on Sandpit Field and we have music going on there all weekend.
“We deliberately chose to run the festival on the second weekend after the August bank holiday, just after all the schools have gone back and visitor numbers in Swanage start to dip, with the aim that we try to hold them a bit higher for a bit longer.
“Swanage has major events running almost every weekend from May onwards, and we see our role as closing the party season down with a big hurrah.
“We were set up to keep folk traditions alive, and we certainly aim to do that as well – we have some of the most amazing local, national and international folk musicians joining us for the weekend and we’re hoping for record crowds!”
The weekend sometimes ends with dance sides cooling off in the sea!
Listen to Swanage Folk Festival headliners
Further information
- Full programme for Swanage Folk Festival
