We look ahead to the 2026 Manchester Folk Festival and spotlight some repeat offenders from the archives – artists who been there and done it – plus one whose debut is a must see…

Way back in the annals of music history, Manchester Folk Festival was nothing more than a twinkle in the eye pilot event billed as ‘Homegrown’ – a showcase for Fine English Folk hosted around the hub of The Met in Bury. The inaugural event in 2012 ran, as it has since, alongside the first English Folk Expo. The evolution into a major event in the Folk music calendar continues with the music city of Manchester hosting around the HOME hub and now adopting the Northern Quarter as its base.

2026 sees a hugely impressive bill as the massed ranks of musicians, fans and Expo delegates descends on the city. Such is the variety and sheer volume of events on offer, where choices must be made, we offer a personal guide to a handful of musical returnees on show.

SKINNY LISTER 2012

Along with Martin Simpson, Jim Moray and Faustus, Skinny Lister and their debut album, Forge And Flagon, showed up at Homegrown back in 2012. And make a stir they definitely did with their riotous shanty punk which remains resolutely shanty and punky in 2026. It was our first encounter and there have been many more along the way, but those who were there can’t possibly forget the flagon of rum and the crowd surfing double bass that’s part and parcel of the Skinny show.

Whether or health & safety or risk assessments will still see Lorna Thomas out arm wrestling in the crowd armed with a flagon of rum, but a night at Band On The Wall (not quite sure if they’ve played there before having seen them at various Academies, Gorilla, Deaf Institute and upstairs at the King’s Arms) with the much more mellow George Boomsma providing the calm before the storm, will be one to remember.

SETH LAKEMAN 2015

Seth and his band (the days of Lisbee Stainton and a curly mop top of Jack Rutter on guitar alongside usual suspects Ben and Cormac) played Bury’s Drill Hall. Six albums on in the decade since, Seth live is a tremendous proposition and another artist who’s no stranger to Manchester (tick off the RNCM, Academy 2 and 3, the Hard Rock Cafe and Stoller) who’ll be making his first appearance at the New Century Hall.

Expect – possibly a chunk of Freedeom Feilds that celebrates twenty years this year and has its own dedicated tour booked in for later in the year, but also hopefully, some cherries picked from the newest set The Granite Way and no doubt a chance to hoedown along as we round off the opening MFF night.

BLAIR DUNLOP 2014 2018

A guest at The Met and again in Manchester (the Great Northern Warehouse complex), the debate still rages whether Blair is at his best with a band or armed with just an acoustic ( or electric) guitar – bit like Richard Thompson really! he’ll have just retunred from a stint in one of his favourite hunting grounds, Australia, so hopefully, with no jet lag and a chance to hear dome music from Out Of The Rain …and with a little luck we might just get the dimly atmospheric confines of the Victoria Wood room at Halle St Peters with something like this….

THE YOUNG’UNS 2017

Back at HOME in 2017, pre-The Ballad Of Johnny Longstaff and Sean Cooney’s Peter’s Field, the Young’uns trio gathered around a single mic for a tale telling set of mainly unaccompanied folk songs in their customary fashion. Sean the storyteller, illuminating and instructing on the origins of the songs, David barking out a stream of irreverent ad libs, Michael just cracking up at the latter.

They’ve covered a lot of ground since, bt are back in their familiar guise at the Stolelr Hall while we also have the pleasure of a David Eagle DJ set to bring sown the curtain on the 2026 festival at band ON The Wall – where he might hopefully regale us with some of his stand up routine…

RACHAEL MCSHANE & THE CARTOGRAPHERS 2018

Invariably ‘of Bellowhead‘, Rachael McShane and her trusty sidesmen, The Cartographers (guitarist Ian Stephenson and melodeon player Julian Sutton) are touring in March and MFF is the first date on her Spring tour

Uncharted is a year old and her latest album since she was promoting When All Is Still back in 2018 when we caught her at HOME. One of our faves here ATB, Hannah Scott will be supporting at a few venues, but not Manchester.

And of course, finishing where we began, Rachael will be back in November, stage left with Team Strings on the 2026 Bellowhead tour.

EL PONY PISADOR

And finally, for good measure, a heads up that El Pony Pisador is in town… To coin a phrase, a band that shot to fame after their show stopping set at Cropredy in 2025, they’ve already proved that the Band On The Wall can’t contain them, so as part of the International Folk Concert Catalonia, the roomy spaces of Halle St Peters is for the taking.

Expect a riot of Catalonian joi de vivre and without wanting to spoil any surprises, our advice is to go see them, get caught up in something that you don’t see every day – anywhere – ever!

Manchester Folk Festival: Website

At The Barrier: Facebook / X / Instagram