'What a beautiful day!' Leveller among first wave of Shrewsbury Folk Festival 2025 acts to be announced

Shrewsbury Folk Festival organisers have announced several artists in the line-up for 2025, with the Brighton rockers one of the big names.

The band, whose hits include What A Beautiful Day, will close the festival at the West Mid Showground over the August bank holiday weekend.

Also performing in Shrewsbury at the festival, which runs from August 22 to 25, will be Oysterband - making their final farewell appearance - and exclusive shows from Canadian fiddle maestros Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy. 

Oysterband will bow out with a headline slot, as well as returning to their roots for one final ceilidh and talking about their careers in a special Q&A.

Celtic superstars and power couple Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy will perform their only English shows next year at the festival as they tour outside of North America for the first time in 25 years.

Also confirmed so far are Skerryvore (Scotland) celebrating their 20th anniversary, Judie Tzuke, The Henry Girls (Ireland), 9Bach (Wales), Jim Moray, The Fontanas, The Laurettes (Scotland), Naomi Bedford and the Ramshackle Band, Shrewsbury’s own Dan Owen, Edwina Hayes, Bryony Griffith & Alice Jones, We Mavericks (Australia/ New Zealand), Harbottle & Jonas, and The Norfolk Broads.

Making a welcome return after overwhelming demand from festival fans following their triumphant festival debut this year will be El Pony Pisador (Spain) with Haitian voodoo songstress Moonlight Benjamin also making a revisit.

And Shrewsbury will host one of only four exclusive festival performances from a new project by the Melrose Quartet. Music, Heritage, Place will bring to life music that is discovered through exploration of more than 600 music manuscripts and items of printed music in English county records offices as they are catalogued in an international database for the first time. 

The project is being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by Royal Holloway, University of London and Newcastle University in partnership with the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

Sandra Surtees, director of the award-winning Shrewsbury Folk Festival, said: “We are delighted to have so many incredible names in our first wave of artists and some amazing exclusives for our festival goers. We are honoured that Oysterband has chosen Shrewsbury as the stage for their final UK farewell and this will be a show not to miss. 

“Along with the return of Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy, a new project from the Melrose Quartet and much more to be confirmed, the line-up is already looking incredibly strong. After an amazing 2024 festival, our ticket sales are already way ahead compared to this time last year, so we’re on course for a great 2025.”

Day and weekend tickets, on sale at shrewsburyfolkfestival.co.uk, start from £44 (plus booking fee) with carer concessions and a monthly payment plan, allowing festival goers to spread the cost over the next eight months.