Twenty years is a long time in festivals. Line-ups change, audiences move on and more than a few festivals disappear altogether. Yet tucked away in the leafy surroundings of Moseley Park, Birmingham, Moseley Folk & Arts Festival celebrates its 20th anniversary with a weekend that shows exactly why it has endured.
Across three days, the anniversary brings together established names, emerging artists, local talent and performers from considerably further afield. Super Furry Animals, The Dead South, Frank Turner, The Wonder Stuff and Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle are among those helping mark the milestone, alongside a bill that stretches far beyond any narrow definition of folk. And that has always been part of Moseley’s charm.
The setting helps too. Hidden away behind the streets of Birmingham, Moseley Park feels remarkably removed from the city surrounding it. The lake, trees and natural slope towards the Main Stage give the festival an intimacy that is increasingly difficult to find elsewhere.
For its twentieth birthday, Moseley does not try to become something bigger. It simply reminds everyone why what it already has works.
Moseley Folk and Art Festival 2026 (Henry Finnegan / @ finneganfoto)
Friday – Here for the Weekend
Friday provides the first glimpse of what the anniversary weekend has in store, and you do not have to wait long for one of its first surprises. Over on the Janice Long Stage, Shropshire boy Pete Hubbard has the honour of opening proceedings. Despite it being barely midday, the dungaree-clad performer manages to draw an impressive crowd.
There is an infectious energy about Hubbard’s performance, with Here For The Weekend proving a massive early highlight. People are dancing and bobbing along in front of the stage and, for an artist handed the potentially difficult job of getting a festival crowd going at lunchtime, he makes remarkably light work of it. Not bad going for midday on day one.
Over on the Main Stage, Morgan Nagler provides a very different introduction to the weekend. The Los Angeles singer-songwriter might be releasing music under her own name now, but she is hardly a newcomer. Nagler previously fronted Whispertown and has spent years writing and collaborating with artists including Phoebe Bridgers, HAIM and Madi Diaz. Her Moseley appearance comes in the year she finally steps forward with her own debut solo material.
There is something fitting about having an artist who has spent so much time behind other people’s songs standing alone on the Main Stage at Moseley. Her plaintive voice and understated songwriting ease the festival into life rather than trying to kick the doors down – the sort of booking that rewards people who turn up early.
Then comes Damien Dempsey. Raw, powerful and unmistakably himself, Dempsey brings things firmly back towards storytelling, his performance carrying the conviction of someone who genuinely means every word he sings.
Back at the Janice Long Stage, Dave Lofts is another example of Friday’s particularly strong Irish contingent. The former Irish Defence Forces soldier has taken an unusual route into music, but his raw indie-folk songwriting has been building a considerable audience. By the time he arrives at Moseley, he has already sold out 25 consecutive Irish headline shows and a debut UK tour, while songs including Holy and Mary have arrived in 2026.
Lofts’ storytelling fits the smaller Janice Long Stage particularly well. He is part of an increasingly exciting wave of Irish artists for whom folk is not something preserved behind glass; it is something to pull apart, modernise and make personal. On a Friday featuring Dempsey, Dermot Henry, Madra Salach and eventually Kingfishr, Lofts helps make Moseley Park feel increasingly Irish as the day goes on.
Then Birmingham’s own Katherine Priddy demonstrates why her reputation as one of Britain’s most compelling contemporary folk songwriters continues to grow. There is a quietness and intricacy to Priddy’s music that could easily disappear on an enormous festival stage. Here, surrounded by the greenery of Moseley Park, it works beautifully. And music is not the only thing competing for attention.
Over at Speakers Corner, David O’Doherty demonstrates exactly why the word Arts deserves its place in the festival’s name. Armed with the deliberately lo-fi keyboard that has become such a familiar part of his act, the Irish comedian brings his mixture of stand-up, songs and wonderfully silly observations to a festival already refusing to stay in one particular lane.
A regular at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2000 and familiar from appearances on QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown and Would I Lie to You?, O’Doherty is a substantial name to find away from the music stages. His appearance is part of Moseley’s collaboration with Birmingham Comedy Festival and shows that wandering away from the Main Stage can lead to something completely different.
Then Friday starts getting considerably louder. BIG SPECIAL may not immediately spring to mind when you think of a folk festival, but that is exactly why their inclusion works. The Black Country duo bring punk, poetry and social commentary crashing into Moseley Park. Joe Hicklin commands the stage while Callum Moloney attacks the drums behind him, providing one of the day’s biggest changes of pace. Twenty years in, Moseley clearly is not interested in being constrained by what a folk festival is supposed to sound like.
The Janice Long Stage continues to reward anyone willing to wander away from the Main Stage, with Family Stereo, Dermot Henry and Dublin six-piece Madra Salach completing a line-up that gives Friday a surprisingly strong Irish flavour.
And that balance between the established and the still-to-be-discovered remains one of Moseley’s greatest strengths. You can leave a major Main Stage performance, wander through the trees towards a smaller stage or Speakers Corner and find something entirely different waiting for you.
Kingfishr Arrive
As darkness settles over Moseley Park, Friday ultimately belongs to Kingfishr. The Irish trio have enjoyed a remarkable rise, and Moseley represents another significant milestone – their first UK festival headline performance.
Eddie Keogh, Eoghan McGrath and Eoin Fitzgibbon have built their reputation on songs that lend themselves perfectly to festival crowds: huge choruses, folk instrumentation and emotional songwriting that quickly turns individual songs into communal experiences.
At Moseley, you can see why their trajectory has been quite so steep. This does not feel like a festival taking a chance on a band stepping up to headline. It feels like a headline band arriving. There is also something fitting about it. On a weekend celebrating a festival with twenty years behind it, Friday night ends by looking firmly towards what might come next.
Twenty Years Celebrated Across Three Days
Kingfishr may have brought Friday to a close, but Moseley’s birthday is only getting started. Across Saturday and Sunday, the anniversary line-up continues to demonstrate the breadth that has come to define the festival.
Super Furry Animals are among the weekend’s biggest names, bringing with them a catalogue stretching back three decades, while The Dead South offer their distinctive Canadian take on bluegrass and folk.
Moseley Folk and Art Festival 2026 (Henry Finnegan / @ finneganfoto)
Elsewhere, Frank Turner brings the sort of songwriting and live energy that has made him an enduring presence on festival bills, while Birmingham’s own The Wonder Stuff add another connection to the region’s musical history.
There is also a particularly fitting appearance from Jacqui McShee’s Pentangle. Pentangle appear at the inaugural Moseley Folk Festival back in 2006, making their return for the twentieth anniversary a neat link between the festival’s first chapter and where it finds itself today.
Johnny Flynn, Lillie Flynn and Jane Weaver are among the many other names filling out a weekend that moves between generations and genres without ever feeling like it has wandered away from Moseley’s identity.
That is important, because longevity alone is not necessarily something worth celebrating. Still being relevant is.
Here’s to the Next Twenty
Over the course of its anniversary weekend, Moseley Folk & Arts Festival demonstrates why it has made it to twenty. There are bigger festivals. There are louder festivals. There are certainly festivals where getting from one stage to another feels like you have accidentally entered a half-marathon. Moseley is not trying to be any of them.
Its greatest strength remains the atmosphere it has created inside Moseley Park: big enough to attract artists capable of commanding huge audiences, yet intimate enough that someone opening a smaller stage at lunchtime can draw a crowd and become one of the discoveries of the weekend.
That is why Pete Hubbard happily belongs on the same weekend as Kingfishr, Frank Turner, Super Furry Animals and The Dead South. It is why a punk duo like BIG SPECIAL does not feel out of place alongside Katherine Priddy or Damien Dempsey. And it is why a comedian with a tiny keyboard can be just as much a part of the Moseley experience as the bands playing a few hundred metres away.
Twenty years after it first opened its gates, Moseley Folk & Arts Festival still feels like somewhere you go as much to discover who you have never heard of as to see the name at the top of the poster. Twenty years down. Here’s to the next twenty.
The Moseley Folk & Arts Festival 2026 — Finnegan for Rockshot Magazine
Live review & photography of The Moseley Folk & Arts Festival 2026 @ Moseley Park, Birmingham, by Henry Finnegan on 4th September 2026. Instagram: @finneganfoto | Facebook: @finneganfoto
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