Visitors staying for the whole weekend could camp in the surrounding fields in tents or vans. The festival offered options for those who didn't have their own camping equipment in the form of "Cosy Camping" and "Glamping". The Festival is re-starting in 2026 after a four-year break.
The event takes place over three days and three nights (Friday to Sunday), across several stages, which include marquees, a chapel, dance stage and workshop rooms. The program features a variety of musical genres such as blues, roots, Celtic, folk, dance, a cappella and world music as well as acts and activities specifically catering for children and young people.
Fairbridge Festival experienced steady audience growth with a 2016 tally of about 15,000 day attendees. The most common patrons were families, but Fairbridge Festival was enjoyed by all ages including teenagers, young adults and the young at heart. The new festival will be a much smaller affair, capped at 1500 in 2026.
The 2017 Fairbridge Festival celebrated the festival's 25th anniversary, and part of these celebrations included an extended four-day event on 21–24 April 2017.
The last festival was held on 9–11 April 2021. In November 2022, the difficult decision was made to cancel the 2023 event due to concerns the Fairbridge Village may no longer be a suitable venue. A consensus has now[when?] been achieved that allows the festival to continue in a smaller format.
History
The festival was established by Max Klubal and Sally Grice, who at the time were committee members of the Western Australian Folk Federation (WAFF). WAFF already ran a folk festival at Toodyay and formed a partnership with the organisation Parents for Music to run the festival at Fairbridge Village, in Pinjarra, with the intention of making it a more family-orientated event than Toodyay. The two festivals continued concurrently for two years but eventually the Toodyay festival ceased.
In 1996, Fairbridge Festival disassociated itself from WAFF to its present status as an incorporated not-for-profit association.
In 2006, a board of management was incorporated into Fairbridge Festival headed up by a president. During this time, a general manager was also appointed to lead the growing Festival Operations Group who were mainly volunteers. Up until this point the president, Wendy Corrick, had managed the event.
Fairbridge Festival and the organisation, Fairbridge WA, were often confused, particularly in relation to invoicing and accounting matters. Fairbridge WA manages Fairbridge Village, the site of the Fairbridge Festival. To help distinguish the organisations, in November 2011, the incorporation changed its name from Fairbridge Festival to FolkWorld.
From 2022, Jon Cope was in the role of artistic director. Prior to that, Rod Vervest was artistic director from 2015 when he took over the role from Steve Barnes. Fairbridge Festival's program was guided by the FolkWorld constitution:[This quote needs a citation]
FolkWorld Inc. is dedicated to promoting traditional, contemporary and multicultural folk music, dance and related performing arts, with particular emphasis on the involvement of families [...].
Overall festival programming was contributed to by several festival programmers, including a Children's Program Director, Youth Program Director and a Dance Program Director.
In 2012, the Fairbridge Festival Quest songwriting competition for high school-aged young people was launched and regularly unearthed new talent from across Western Australia since then.
The 2017 Ben Elton film Three Summers is set at a fictional folk festival in Fairbridge which is called 'Westival', but is inspired by and based on the Fairbridge Festival.[1]
Donations were invited to help support and contribute to the future of Fairbridge Festival and other FolkWorld initiatives. Donations of A$2 or more are tax deductible.
In 2026 the renewed festival is starting again from the ground up with the catch phrase "Returning to our Roots".[This quote needs a citation]
Site
The festival site was originally Fairbridge School, a combination of orphanage, farm school and Imperial social engineering project set up as part of a colonial vision by Kingsley Fairbridge in 1912. The school was founded with the mission of taking deprived children from the orphanages (such as Barnardo's) and streets of Britain with the promise of a healthy life in the Colonies with better prospects, as was the prevailing ethos of the time. The school functioned until the early 1960s. Past pupils of the school are represented by the Old Fairbridgians Association WA.
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