Wirrina Bluegrass & Acoustic Roots Festival will be held from Friday 21 to Sunday 23, November, 2025.

Ticket sales are open. Book your Festival tickets and your accomodation soon!  You can book your Festival tickets online via the Orange button above.

Volunteers needed

We’re looking for some more physically able volunteers—Any younger musicians or musicians’ friends who are available on the Friday and Monday and would like a weekend festival + camping pass, in exchange for helping set up and pack away the site. We’d like to hear from you if you’re able to assist. As always, please get in touch with any questions or offers of assistance – wirrinabluegrass@gmail.com is the best way to reach us, or you can find us on Facebook.

2025 Festival applications

Applications to perform at the 2025 Wirrina Bluegrass & Acoustic Roots Festival are now closed.
It is always a difficult decision making process to make the final selection of performers. If you don’t make the list this time, please know that we are very grateful to have all applications. It doesn’t mean that we don’t love you! There are many variables that go into the equation for selecting the line up each year; the mix of genres, the makeup of the list of applicants, the Festival budget, opportunities for new comers, whether or not you played last year or many times previously… these are just a few. Please apply again next year!

Wirrina Music Camp 2025

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

Wirrina Young Musicians’ Contest

The Wirrina Young Musicians’ Contest is also happening again in 2025. Thank you to Lucy Kammerman who is helping to coordinate the contest this year.
Head over to the Wirrina Young Musicians’ Contest page for further information: Wirrina Young Musicians’ Contest

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

More performers booked! It’s still a work in progress but we can now announce a few more of the wonderful musicians who will play at Wirrina this year.

Jim Patterson & the Wellbeing Social Club

Jim Paterson’s WellBeing Social Club is a collection of musicians whose mission is to reach out and bring the community together with uplifting, original, and inspiring rootsy songs. The thing that really ties them all together is their love for music. Expect to hear fantastic harmonies and some of the best musicians in SA.

The Lofty Mountain Band

The Lofty Mountain Band are an exhilarating conference of things with strings playing a breakneck fusion of pop, country and folk. Fronted by prolific, Adelaide raconteur, Max Savage  the band plays catchy, hook-based pop songs with bluegrass instrumentation. Formed in 2020, the band have built up a solid following in their home state playing a string of sold-out shows in regional and metropolitan South Australia over the past few years. With an intoxicating blend of tight vocal harmonies, virtuosic playing, yearning, wit and melancholy, their music is ethereal and grounded, often devastating and occasionally transcendent. Their performance promises to be exciting—be sure to be there!

The Bluegrass Remnants

The Bluegrass Remnants bring tradition to life with a timeless blend of hard-driving rhythm, rich harmonies, and spirited picking. Featuring Jim Golding on banjo, Heath Joyce on mandolin, Ian Riethoff on bass, and Chris Leidy on guitar, this four-piece outfit plays traditional bluegrass with heart and grit—seasoned with the occasional “jazzgrass” twist. Whether it’s a well-loved standard or a playful reimagining, The Bluegrass Remnants deliver an engaging, toe-tapping sound that honours the roots while exploring fresh territory.

Kenny Joe Blake

Kenny Joe Blake  has been a wandering troubadour  since he learned to play harmonica at 17. He started playing guitar in 1975. In the ’90’s he began playing and writing music in the Roots Country scene—he teamed up with the late  AP Johnson. These days his repertoire includes contemporary country, blues, R ‘n B, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, and folk. He  plays a lot of his own material and by  all accounts he tells a great story or two as well. We welcome Kenny to the Wirrina stage for his first appearance at the Festival.

Crossroads Bluegrass Band

Dustbowl Chic

Dustbowl Chic are locally renowned for their unique and rustic blend of good fun folk rock and country tunes, with a dash of blues, brass and bluegrass; mandos and banjos; harmonies and hilarity; as well as dobros and a didgeridoo thrown in for good measure. Dustbowl Chic…porch stomping, shed shaking, pew rattling good fun.

The Weeping Willows

You may have had the luck to see/hear Andrew Wrigglesworth and Laura Coates play in SA from time to time since 2012, but this is their first time at Wirrina! After six years, the Melbourne alt-country duo, are celebrating the release of their long-awaited third studio album, You Reap What You Sow.  In the years in between, they’ve picked up a substantial collection of prestigious awards and toured in the USA. When I first came across them over a decade ago they were relatively unknown but those days are gone and they are now receiving the recognition they so deserve. Andrew’s stunning guitar work and Laura’s voice are a winning combination.

Paula Standing Trio

Local SA songstress, Paula Standing, will no doubt delight Wirrina audiences with her performance. Paula is an established favourite amongst the Australian contemporary indie roots scene, where wry humour and warmth are as much a part of the show as her impressive vocal range and guitar combo. The poetry in her heartfelt songwriting is just beautiful—listen closely. Paula’s song ‘Ordinarily’ has recently been voted as a finalist in the World Songwriting Awards—for best modern country song. Go Paula! Maybe she’ll play it for us at Wirrina…? 

Jeri Foreman and Grace Honeywell

Jeri Foreman and 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. They will be performing, teaching and leading sessions at our festival (Nov 21—23) and also arrive Monday 17 to teach at the music camp beforehand (Nov 18—20).

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.

Crooked Road

Festival darlings, the fella’s from Crooked Road, are back to wow us with their stellar string playing, impeccable harmonies, and exhilarating Bluegrass arrangements. As we’ve said before, these guys are Bluegrass royalty at Wirrina and we can’t get enough of them!

Adelaide Scottish Fiddle Club

The Adelaide Scottish Fiddle Club was founded in 2002 to encourage an interest in the musical heritage of Scotland, and to provide a supportive environment for the playing of this rich repertoire of music. The club has members ranging in age from ‘under-eights’ to ‘over-eighties’ and caters for all levels of playing ability. As regular performers at Wirrina, their sets are always a joy!

www.adelaidescottishfiddleclub.com.au

Sally and The Poor Boys

A South Australian based band who covers songs by iconic musicians such as Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Eric Clapton, Creedence, The Rolling Stones and more.

Lasseter’s Gold

Lasseter’s Gold will be playing for the Shearing Shed Bush Dance. Lasseter’s Gold is a popular Adelaide folk band established in 2007.  The band has a wealth of musical experience and specialises in running bush dances and performing Celtic music, Australian bush songs and a wide range of folk songs.

Reverend & Mrs Rowdy and their Rowdy Friends

Whisky Communion on Sunday morning has become a regular feature at Wirrina. Take a swig of whisky and enjoy some fun songs—not to be taken too seriously!