The Maldon Folk Festival celebrates 45 years
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The Maldon Folk Festival celebrates 45 years

The Maldon Folk Festival has been going for more than four decades, and it still offers festival goers a legendary folk experience across a number of venues over four days. With an abundance of music, workshops and dance, there’s no reason not to see what it’s all about, especially for their 45th edition.
One particular performance we are excited about is Melbourne folk outfit Rich Davies & The Low Road.
With a poet’s heart and rocker’s soul, Rich Davies & The Low Road deliver a ‘foot-stomping contemporary folk attack’ (as per the words of Mick Thomas).
Hailed as ‘The Pogues meets Springsteen’, and having spent most of the last 18 months on the road, the award winning songwriter and his formidable band are renowned for their rousing live show, as they peel back the skin of rock’n’roll to expose bones of folk and roots.
Davies spent his formative years in Scottish folk clubs steeped in the ethos of the genre, and his second album, Ghosts, has seen him reconnect with that world, placing song craft front and centre, with his heart-wrung voice leading the charge.
Placing song craft front and centre, with his heart-wrung voice leading the charge, Rich Davies & The Low Road just wrapped up their ‘East Coast Tour’, visiting Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and finishing up with a full house show in Melbourne, and now they’re heading back to Maldon’s festival this November.
“Having had such a delightful time at last year’s festival, coming back was an absolute no brainer,” smiles Stirling Gill-Chambers, fiddle player for the Low Road. “The festival has a wonderfully warm community vibe and it is one of my favourites on the festival circuit.
“Our highlights of last year were pub sessions, op shopping, wine drinking, rehearsing out in the bush and, of course, playing as many shows as we can,” he continues, reflecting on last years edition. “Also, Rich might just break out his gangster rapping skills again…”
Alongside Rich Davies & The Low Road, you’ll also find performances from Ireland’s The Sweet Sorrows, USA’s Blueridge Broadcasters, New Zealand’s brightest rising star Jenny Mitchell, as well as home-grown performers Cat Canteri and The Hispter Proof Fence, The Jam Tarts Trio and Celtic rockers Claymore. There will be a free tribute concert on Sunday night at the Troubadour for Maldon performance veteran Janette Geri after her sudden passing at the end of June this year.
Located in the centre of regional Victoria – between Castlemaine and Bendigo – Maldon is basically a two hour drive from any direction, for those keen on the idea of a road trip. And it’s quite the scenic country route, so grab some friends and make a day of it.
As Stirling puts it, prepare for “a rip roaring folk’n’roll rollercoaster ride!”
When & Where: Maldon Folk Festival, Maldon – November 2 – 5 2018.
Visit www.maldonfolkfestival.com