Wirrina 2025

The next Wirrina festival dates are
Friday 21 to Sunday 23 November.

Pop it in your calendar!

2025 performance applications

Applications to perform at the 2025 Festival are closing on Anzac Day—April 25.

Please send an email  to wirrinabluegrass@gmail.com with your application to play as soon as possible before this date. If you’re a Bluegrass or Acoustic Roots performer please send us whatever you think we need to know about you! (For example, a short bio, links to a sound bite/video.)

Wirrina Music Camp 2025

The Wirrina Music Camp for stringed instruments is happening again in 2025.
Details here

Sponsorship

Ever wondered how a festival pays for itself? In the case of Wirrina Bluegrass & Acoustic Roots Festival, ticket sales cover the unavoidable administration costs and payments for performing artists —and these are more of a ‘honorarium’ plus travel and accommodation. Longer term, we’d like to attract somewhat larger audiences and be able to pay closer to their actual worth. The marquees, a major infrastructure cost, are sponsored by Wirrina Cove Holiday Park. The Young Musicians’ Award began because a festival supporter organised grant funding. That funding will run out after this year.

We all love this festival, its particular focus and format and we’d like to expand what is on offer. An example is our addition of the bush dance; there are possibilities of separate concept presentations/workshops being offered to us. These would add depth to our festival. But how do we fund these when we are already stretched to the limit? We are hoping there are people in our festival community that would like to make these ‘extra-curricular’ activities happen and keep happening. The cost is generally around $500 to $1500 per activity. An activity sponsorship could be financed by one or more people and sponsors can choose to be named in the program or remain anonymous. If you are interested in being involved in this way, please contact us.

We are always open to new constructive ideas to improve our festival both in enjoyment and sustainability and the best way to make contact is by emailing us at wirrinabluegrass@gmail.com

Performers 2025

The committee is excited to announce that Jeri Foreman with Grace Honeywell will join us from Glasgow at Wirrina this November!

Long -time Wirrina festival attendees will likely remember Jerri and her fiddle playing from earlier festivals —playing with Astro Cobalt and Andrew Clermont’s Supper Club shows. She was substantially involved in SA’s Folk, Bluegrass and modern string music for many years before moving to Scotland. Grace joins her with acclaimed expertise in fiddle, guitar and songwriting. Both have a solid teaching reputation with adults and youth, as well as impressive performance histories.

Watershed Stringband

Cat & Clint join Dave & Wendy from The Cartwheels, to form Watershed Stringband — featuring red-hot fiddle and banjo, dreamy vocal harmonies, snappy guitar pickin’ and juicy double bass. This all-star lineup bring a unique blend of vintage country from driving bluegrass and old time dance tunes to western swing and Australiana.