By Helen Musa

At a lively gathering of the clans at BentSpoke BrewPub on Thursday, the National Folk Festival unveiled its 2026 Easter program.

Marking 60 years of the festival, organisers announced the Lifetime Achievement Awards. Recipients include Forbes identities Rob and Olya Willis, acknowledged for their lifelong work collecting and preserving Australian folklore, and Martyn Wyndham-Read, honoured for a career dedicated to performing and championing Australian folk music in Australia and internationally, including his early role in the festival’s formative years.

According to co-artistic director Chris Stone, over the long weekend (April 2-6) audiences will be able to enjoy more than 500 events across 13 venues.

Stone said the performances would reflect traditions from Australia and around the world through music, dance, circus, spoken word, workshops, sessions and family-friendly activities, all encouraging collaboration.

Emphasising variety, he invited members of the public to take part in Friday workshops covering everything from Georgian yodelling and Ngunnawal culture to Indonesian family dance, to come along to the Sunday night Bushrangers Ball, and then stay on late for the Adults-Only Cabaret.

A Monday morning feature will celebrate 60 years of queer voices and an appearance by folk favourites The Spooky Men’s Chorale.

The program, Stone said, reflects the festival’s long history of participation, cultural exchange and shared music-making, as well as its role in providing a space where social concerns are explored – giving voice to ideas of peace and protest and bringing people together through music and dance.

Unsurprisingly, cultural dance traditions from around the world feature prominently, including Palestinian line dancing from Dabke & Tatreez, Ukrainian dance music from Mar’yana Jaga Band, and Jewish circle dances led by Sydney klezmer group Chutney, alongside international artists Steve Poltz and Natalie and Brittany Haas.

The often-notorious Infinite Song Competition this year celebrates songs by women from the 1960s in a program that Stone promises “looks both back and forward”.

The National Folk Festival will be held at Exhibition Park in Canberra over Easter, April 2-6. Details here