Of Folk Fest’s fresh faces Of Monsters and Men, Lucy Dacus, Father John Misty, Jesse Welles notable newcomers to headline lineup By: Jen Zoratti Posted: 6:00 PM CST Thursday, Mar. 5, 2026 Last Modified: 8:44 AM CST Friday, Mar. 6, 2026 Updates

If last year’s 50th anniversary edition of the Winnipeg Folk Festival was a look back, then 51 is a look forward.

The 2025 festival hewed more closely to its folk roots, a five-decade retrospective look at how a one-off festival became a half-century institution.

“This year, we’re just going for it again in terms of putting together a diversified, well-balanced festival that’s got all the same sounds that you’ve heard, but mostly from artists that haven’t performed at the festival before,” says artistic director Chris Frayer.

Of Monsters and Men, Lucy Dacus, Father John Misty and Jesse Welles are among the fresh faces who will be appearing at this year’s festival, which runs July 9 to 12 at Birds Hill Provincial Park.

Arguably one of Iceland’s biggest touring acts, indie folk/rock band Of Monsters and Men has long been on Frayer’s wishlist.

“Of Monsters and Men has been a really big one, an important one, I think, because not only are they a great indie folk group, but they’ve never played Winnipeg before and just with our attachment to the Icelandic settlement here and the 150th anniversary, we feel it’s timely to have them coming.”

Dacus, a critically acclaimed singer-songwriter with the voice of an angel, has never performed at the Winnipeg Folk Festival either, but her bandmates have: she is a member of the American indie rock supergroup boygenius along with Phoebe Bridgers and Julien Baker, both of whom performed at the festival back in 2018.

“I always wanted to get boygenius here, but they’re on sabbatical for an indefinite amount of time. But Lucy has a new record out (2025’s Forever Is a Feeling), so the stars aligned on getting her here.”

Also making his Birds Hill debut is Father John Misty, an act many folk fest goers have long wanted to see on the lineup. The last time the sardonic singer-songwriter otherwise known as Josh Tillman was around these parts was to headline the Interstellar Rodeo festival back in 2017.

“That’s another big one for me. I’m a huge fan,” Frayer says.

Welles, an American singer-songwriter who has broken out big thanks to his viral protest songs that offer biting commentary on everything from ICE to corporate greed, was an exciting discovery for Frayer at the 2025 Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island and a no-brainer booking for this year’s folk fest.

“He’s the most obvious one to have at a folk festival right now, especially during these times.”

Fans of a certain hotter-than-hot TV series will be very pleased to hear Wolf Parade is on the bill.

One of the biggest bands to come out of the explosive mid-aughts Montreal indie rock scene, Wolf Parade is currently experiencing a revival owing to the inclusion of its 2005 anthem I’ll Believe in Anything on the Heated Rivalry soundtrack.

“I managed to squeeze that one in. I mean, obviously, everybody in our office has watched Heated Rivalry,” Frayer says.

“That’s another really great one to have for this year because, again, it’s timely. There’s so many reasons why people like Heated Rivalry, but I think obviously with everything going on in the geopolitical landscape, it’s just something for people to be interested in and proud of.”

It’s not the lineup’s only “elbows up” moment. Swedish experimental psychedelic rock group GOAT — whose anonymous members perform masked — is only doing four Canadian dates, and folk fest is one of them.

“They won’t go to the United States while Trump is in power,” Frayer says.

“Canada is benefiting, in some regards, with artists choosing to come here. It’s easy for artists to get visas to come to Canada and to have them for years, so we’re hoping that some of these artists come back to visit us again.”

There’s also a number of returning folk fest favourites, including English singer-songwriter and political activist Billy Bragg, who hasn’t graced the stage at Birds Hill since 2012, and Canadian alt-folk singer-songwriter Kathleen Edwards, who was last at the festival in 2019.

Special to this year’s festival are Time Fades Away: Neil Young @ 80, folk fest’s version of the 2025 Massey Hall birthday tribute concert directed by Aaron Goldstein, who will be joined by special guests — “Neil Young is not coming to town this summer, so this will probably be the closest people will get,” Frayer says — and Cumbia Cósmica (Cosmic Cumbia), a genre-blending celebration of Latin American music.

Named for the rhythmic music and dance genre originating from Colombia’s Caribbean coast, Cumbia Cósmica will feature Peru’s psychedelic cumbia band Chicha Libre, B.C.’s tropical psychedelia act Empanadas Ilegales and Colombia’s dance/electronic outfit Killabeatmaker.

Programming the festival requires Frayer to have his finger on a lot of different pulses. That means putting in face time at music festivals and conferences, as well as paying attention to music trends (including what’s seeing an uptick from TikTok or TV), but he also makes a point of keeping his ears open to younger colleagues, whether they are managers, agents, A&R reps or his fellow folk fest staffers, about what they are listening to and excited about.

Sometimes, Frayer will float ideas out to them at lunchtime.

“I’ll be so corny and be like, ‘Do you guys like that Wolf Parade song from Heated Rivalry? Do you think that people would like that at the festival?’ And then it’s just this chorus of, ‘Do it! Do it! Do it!’” he says.

“I’m used to trying to lead people towards music, and sometimes I’m the one being led.”

Frayer logs a lot of dates on the road seeing live music to get a real-time, in-the-crowd sense of who’s lighting up, say, the Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, Tenn., or the Colombian club scene.

Programming for an audience who shares his sense of discovery, he says, is a privilege.

“I’m trying to bring all those global experiences I have back to those four days in July.”

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