Archive for category: Latest News

Cobargo Folk Festival 2025

Running a folk festival is a year-round event.Early in May our festival team leaders and Yuin Folk Committee members got together for a day to look in detail at the results of the 2024 festival, see what we did well and what can be improved for 2025. Our thanks to all who came along.

Each year, we survey patrons, performers and volunteers and look at their comments and suggestions. We’re glad to say that majority of comments were positive and that we’ve taken on-board any constructive comments and criticism.

Performer Expressions of Interest will open for our 2025 Festival which will run from 28 February to 2 March.

Later in the year — around about October – we will be putting out a call for volunteers, without which the festival wouldn’t be possible.

You might be surprised to know that we’ve calculated the value of our volunteers – including organising committee members who work throughout the year – at over $700,000.

That said, the costs of running the festival have increased substantially in the past few years- driven by inflation and particularly increased fuel prices.

We are very aware of cost-of-living increases on festival goers and we are intent on keeping our ticket prices at a reasonable level and providing great value for money.

We expect early bird tickets to be available towards the end of September but put 28 February to 2 March in your diaries and, if you’ve enjoyed our festival in the past, try to bring some friends who haven’t been to this beautiful event.

Provide your feedback

Big thanks to everyone who helped make the 2023 Cobargo Folk Festival the absolute blast that it was. Your support means a lot to this little village and our local district.

We’ll be back next year from 1-3 March 2024 – save the date!

The 2023 audience survey is now available online at surveymonkey.com/r/2023CFFVisitorSurvey

The questionnaire is confidential and your responses will only be analysed with those of other survey respondents.

It will take approximately 10 minutes and can be launched by clicking on the link below.

Each completed survey will be entered into a draw for two Adult Tickets and camping fees at the 2024 Festival.

The survey will close Sunday March 19th. If you have already completed the survey via our email or website, thanks!

Festival 2023 – It’s a Wrap. Thanks Everyone!

On the Biamanga stage with AUSTRAL at the 2023 Cobargo Folk Festival

Festivals come in all shapes and sizes, from the large spectaculars where thousands dance in front of huge stages with giant sound systems and dazzling light shows, to those like ours, smaller and more intimate, and where everyone who steps over through the gate makes their own unique contribution to creating the event.

We think our festival is very special.  

What began 29 years ago as a street festival in the historic main street of Cobargo has grown into a joyful three-day celebration of  folk and roots music, song, dance, craft and more in the relaxed Sapphire Coast hinterland of New South Wales.  Proudly produced and presented by the Yuin Folk Club Inc since 1996, the Cobargo Folk Festival is wholly volunteer-run, independent and non-commercial.  Any profits we make go to helping grow music and art in our beautiful region. 

Our festival is a place where you can immerse yourself in a range of different experiences, camp and reconnect with family and friends, join other musos in a pick or a session, perhaps with a couple of performers, enjoy a drink and some great food. Along with our concerts and an enthralling First Nations program featuring the Yuin Elders’ Yarning Tent, we have workshops open to all, KIDBARGO! – our kids’ festival and The Crossing Youth Stage, where you might spot an emerging young artist with a shiny career ahead.

Authentic, original, creative, inspiring – come and join us in March 2024. From our hearts to yours with love from a bunch of local folk who care.

COBARGO UNITES! Cancelled

The COBARGO UNITES! benefit concert planned for Sunday 3 May to raise funds for the Cobargo Community Bushfire Recovery Fund has been cancelled because of coronavirus restrictions on mass gatherings. This is a double blow for Cobargo following the cancellation of 2020 Cobargo Folk Festival following the devastating bushfire fire that swept through our village on New Year’s Eve 2019. 

 

2020 Cobargo Folk Festival Postponed because of bushfires

The 2020 Cobargo Folk Festival is postponed because of the devastation caused to the people of Cobargo by the 2020 New Year’s Eve bushfires.

2020 Performer Applications open until 6 July

Performer applications for the 2020 Cobargo Folk Festival will close on 6 JULY.

Go to Performer application 2020

25th COBARGO FOLK FESTIVAL 28 Feb-1 March 2020

That’s a wrap folks! The 2019 Cobargo Folk Festival was a blast! Thanks to all our wonderful volunteers, performers, vendors, service providers and everyone in the audience who came and supported this little festival on the Far South Coast of NSW. We had a ball and look forward to doing it all again from 28 Feb-1 March 2020. See you then!

The Cobargo Sessions

THE COBARGO SESSIONS

At the 2018 Cobargo Folk Festival we did something a bit different that we intend to be the start of a lasting and far reaching online archive of the music we love. We are thrilled to announce the launch of The Cobargo Sessions, a series of high quality videos showcasing a range of artists who have performed at the Cobargo Folk Festival.

We want people all over Australia and around the world to see the range of extraordinary talent that makes its way to the sleepy, beautiful village of Cobargo in rural New South Wales, Australia, to entertain at our annual folk festival held in the first weekend of March, now firmly on the global folk and roots map.

We also want to give back to the artists who support our festival and discovered, after talking to many performers, that the single most useful contribution would be a well-produced video. With the generous support of the NSW Government tourist promotion body, Destination NSW, we were able to engage two young film production companies, Pegleg Productions from the Albury region, and Crewcible from the ACT, to weave their magic on a pretty limited budget.

As you’ll see on our Cobargo Folk Festival YouTube Channel, they did a fantastic job.

We are giving each video to the artists involved free of charge, asking only that they use their own online platforms to promote themselves and our Festival.

Finances permitting, we hope to grow this archive over coming years. We all learned a lot from our first year and we are have heaps of exciting ideas for the future.

Obviously, we just don’t have the time or the money to do this for every performer at the Festival. So our programming team will make selections, based on availability during the festival, genres, Australian and international audience reach, and helping emerging and mid-career artists.

We hope you will take time to look at this year’s excellent performances and to share them far and wide with your family and friends. Please subscribe to our Youtube channel to receive all the updates!

 

 

2018 Yuin Folk Club Concerts in April

Two fabulous Yuin Folk Club concerts are coming up in April!  First up, the awesome Flats and Sharps, a high energy Cornish bluegrass/Old Timey band featuring star Candelo bass player, Robyn Martin, on Thursday 5 April from 7pm. Then we have Cara, a wonderful Celtic band based in Germany on Sunday 8 April from 4pm. Both bands are coming to us straight from the National Folk Festival. The raffle proceeds from both concerts plus a donation from the Yuin Folk Club and any other private donations from participants will go to the Mayoral Appeal Fund following the Tathra bushfires. Tickets $20 for YFC members and $25 for non-members or $30 for both concerts for members and $40 for both concerts for non-members. Concerts at the Cobargo School of Arts Hall, tix at the door. See you there!

2018 Cobargo Folk Festival Raffle Results:

1st Prize Ticket 2977 2 Adult Season Passes to the 2018 Woodford Folk Festival, M Telfon
2nd Prize Ticket 2471 2 Adult Season Passes to the 2019 Illawarra Folk Festival, J Bass
3rd Prize Ticket 1520 2 nights accommodation for 4 guests at one of the Seaview Beach Houses (Bermagui), C Stanford
4th Prize Ticket 2889 2 Adult Season Passes with camping to the 2019 Cobargo Folk Festival, K Hadley
5th Prize Ticket 1513 1 nights accommodation for 2 people at the Harbourvew Motel (Bermagui), W Byrne
6th Prize Ticket 1225 2 Adult Season Passes (With Camping) to the 2018 Folk By The Sea, Natalie
7th Prize Ticket 1103 Leather Hat Donated by South Coast Leather, Cobargo, A Calfas
8th Prize Ticket 2666 Assorted CD’s Donated by Festival Performers, R Newberry
9th Prize Ticket 2083 2 Adult Season Tickets (with camping) to Nariel Folk Festival, G Wadsley

Visitor Survey

Please help us improve our next festival by completing the 2018 Festival Evaluation Survey.

Please note:  Visitors who purchased tickets on-line will also be sent the survey link by email.
It only needs to be completed once.  Thanks!

2018 Cobargo Folk Festival

ALL CAMPING TICKETS FOR THE 2018 COBARGO FOLK FESTIVAL ARE SOLDThere are still plenty of DAY TICKETS, which you can buy at the gate.  The 2018  program booklet is HERE with all the info you need for a top weekend in Cobargo. See you soon!

The Cobargo Folk Festival regrets that Peter Rowan has cancelled his tour of Australia because of ill-health.

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