Mill Farm Folk Festival 2026

Mill Farm Folk Festival 2026

There is no better place to be when you’re enjoying midsummer outdoors, surrounded by perfect countryside and listening to the very best of Dorset and Somerset’s roots folk music.

The Mill Farm Folk Festival is back, bigger, brighter, open in time for breakfast and more effervescent than ever for 2026. This year, it’s different! We’ve moved our Folk Festival to the day after the Mill Farm Party, at the end of July, so we can deliver an even better experience and still have you home for Sunday dinner.

You can buy a full weekend ticket, a Folk Festival–only ticket, or a Mill Farm Party–only ticket (as a separate event). We’re also offering tickets at an all-time low price, so if you haven’t experienced what we do yet and money has been the issue, now’s your chance to pop along.

It’s the perfect Dorset countryside family day out — full to the brim with beautiful ambience and featuring a superb line-up of fine folk music acts.

There will be plenty of activities for kids of all ages, including face painting, a bouncy-castle assault course, arts and crafts, and stalls to browse and peruse the day away. Ideal for keeping the little ones entertained while you soak up the festival atmosphere.

Festival food and drink will be available from local vendors all day until the night lights twinkle. The Mill Farm Cottage Bar will be back in the field, fully stocked with local wines, beers, ciders and spirits, as well as non-alcoholic alternatives — perfect for a wee tipple in the sunshine.

All ticket information is listed below, so please get in quick before they disappear. We’re a boutique festival with a big heart, and tickets can sell fast!

Peace and Love,

The Mill Farm Team

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Swamp Stomp String Band

The Swamp Stomp String Band are a raucous and rowdy honky-tonk rabble, known for their boisterous, bawdy and theatrically extravagant performances. Their sound is a heady cocktail of rockabilly, bluegrass, country and folk, shaken up with a fistful of dive-bar swagger and a dash of backwoods grit.

Armed with gritty guitars, twanging banjos, howlin’ harmonicas, a thudding double bass, pounding drums and their flat-pack honky-tonk piano, they tear through everything from riotous tunes to heart-worn ballads. Play your cards right and you might even get invited for a waltz!

They’ve stormed stages across the UK, including a headline slot on the Caffè Nero Stage at Black Deer Festival 2024, the main stage at Red Rooster Festival 2025, and a sold-out show at London’s Fiddler’s Elbow. With two successful nationwide tours behind them and a full summer of festivals under their belt, when I say “Swamp Stomp”, you say “String Band!”

The Lost Trades

The Lost Trades are a vocal harmony trio with a cool Laurel Canyon vibe. Three Wiltshire-based singer-songwriters — Jamie R Hawkins, Phil Cooper and Tamsin Quin — were brought together by a mutual love of modern folk and roots music, joining forces in late 2019 for a three-part harmony modern folk adventure.

With a sound reminiscent of the California folk scene of the late ’60s and early ’70s, their vocal harmonies have been described as “flawless”, “spine-tingling” and “magical”.

After a global pandemic cut short their first tour after just a single sold-out show, the band retreated to their songwriting rooms to work on their debut album, The Bird, The Book & The Barrel. Released in June 2021, it was warmly received and spent eight months in the Official UK Folk Albums Chart. Their follow-up album, Petrichor, was released in March 2023 and immediately followed suit, entering the chart at #31.

St Fian

Welcoming back St Fian for a third consecutive year! St Fian are a South West–based folk duo creating original folk music with a traditional and gritty twist. Their music is unique and thought-provoking, combining folklore with stories rooted in the true grit of life.

They shed light on dark tales from history, delve into deep human emotions, and bring to life the mysterious secrets hidden within our world. Expect songs that make you laugh, dance, think twice — and sometimes cry.

The Ducks

Mill Farm’s own house band, The Ducks are a four-piece fronted by Mark and Anne. They play a range of folk-style songs from the last 50 years — all with their own distinctive twist.

Waves Stones   

A family trio who have been playing together, in one way or another, for over 50 years. Good friends back in the 1970s, Will introduced Derek to contemporary folk music, fingerstyle playing and open guitar tunings. At home, Derek shared songs, chords and singing with his little sister Jane.

Recently formed as The Wavestones, the band’s name evokes images of pebbles on the beach, pounded by waves yet still standing strong after all these years — a reflection of their shared musical journey, growing up by the sea.

Tor 

Step into the rich and evocative world of Tor, a band that unites some of the finest musicians in the genre. Tor is led by Tim O'Dowd and Dominic Henderson on duelling uilleann pipes, flutes and whistles, backed up by Alex Korom-Percy on fiddle and guitar. The core trio is joined at larger outings by multi-instrumentalist Louis Bingham on guitar and bouzouki, and Sam Lifton driving the rhythm on percussion. Together, they craft a vibrant soundscape that honours traditional roots whilst infusing it with their own interpretations and compositions.

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Festival Info:

• Date: Sunday, 26th July 2026
• Gates: 10.30am-7:00pm.
• Parking is £2 per vehicle - this helps us plan the day and amount of cars we can expect. All car parking proceeds are donated to a local charity.
• Please note that as a growing festival and farm with animal residents we are unable to admit dogs into the festival site.

• We also don’t allow outside food and drink, with exceptions for special dietary needs, children, or specific circumstances. As a small festival, our food vendors don’t make massive profits, and this policy helps us support them.

Contact:

For enquiries, please contact us here:

events@millfarmdorset.com

or 

07966709988
(please leave a message, we may be in the field or the studio and we will get right back to you.)

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Mill Farm | Bradford Abbas | Dorset | DT9 6RE

Mill Farm | Bradford Abbas | Dorset | DT9 6RE