Artists appearing
at Festival at the Edge 2025
Artists already confirmed are listed below.
We are starting to book our performers and are in discussions with lots of exciting acts. Please keep checking back here to get the latest news on confirmed acts.
Peter Chand
British Indian storyteller Peter Chand is one of Europe’s most renowned storytellers and is constantly in demand for his tales of life, love, and the supernatural. From a Punjabi background, he regularly visits family in India to collect and translate traditional folktales which he shares with audiences of all ages.
With a deep understanding of story and narrative he is a powerful and dynamic storyteller who sees storytelling as a means of connecting, entertaining, and a call to social action.
He has shared his tales across Britain and has also performed in Norway, France, USA, Lithuania, Austria, Canada, and Singapore, amongst other countries.
Peter is also a trainer of high repute, leading workshops with teachers, librarians, budding storytellers, university students, business leaders, health professionals, and anyone trying to find their voice and gain confidence when performing in public.
He has recently been awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the University of Wolverhampton for his storytelling activities and for championing storytellers from a global majority heritage.
“This is like an audience with Paulo Coelho! Storytelling is divine”. Kemi B. Litera London
Kate Green
Artist Kate Green began writing music in 2019 when she walked for 5 days from Wales to Birmingham (via Cleobury Mortimer) along the Elan Valley Aqueduct. Since then, she has shared her work in art galleries, theatres, churches and other community venues. Described by audiences as ‘high concept nerdery’ and ‘Bill Bailey-esque’, Kate’s performances weave art, philosophy and gentle humour into stories of rural life and landscape.
Andy Harrop Smith
Nick Hennessey
Tom Kitching with Marit Fält
Author and musician Tom Kitching launches his new book and album, ‘Where There’s Brass’, with a special storytelling and music concert tour, including a performance at FatE.
Documenting six months living in the London waterways community, making the long journey across England from Manchester on a traditional narrowboat built in 1937, ‘Where There’s Brass’ tells the story of the contemporary London waterways; a floating slum at worst, a bohemian, alternative, vibrant community at best. It is a love letter to the waterways, and a rallying cry for what they can be in the future.
Stories old and new interwoven with a specially composed suite of music, underpinned by Tom’s long term accompanist, the brilliant Nordic mandola player Marit Fält.
This project builds on the success of his previous work, most recently ‘Seasons of Change’, the stories and music from 18 months busking around England.
*Photo credit – Elly Lucas
Michell, Pfeiffer & Kulesh
“Individually, all three are outstanding performers, together they are unrivalled” (Folking.com).
Michell, Pfeiffer & Kulesh are an all-female close harmony folk trio that brings together the exciting talents and exquisite voices of award-winning songwriters Odette Michell, Karen Pfeiffer and Daria Kulesh. Their stunning three-part vocal harmonies bring to life spellbinding folk tales, expertly woven together with an international twist – a project that would never transpired had it not been for the lockdowns, when three of the busiest female performers on the folk scene found themselves somewhat less occupied than before. Described as “tremendous” (Mike Harding), “exquisite” (Folking.com), and “entrancing” (FATEA), theirs is a unique cross-cultural, multilingual, multi-instrumental collaboration, turning familiar folk tunes into something fresh and powerful. Winners of the Introducing Stage at the Great British Folk Festival 2023 by audience vote, they truly wow with a deeply moving, exciting and unique live show.
Between them, Michell, Pfeiffer & Kulesh play guitar, bouzouki, accordion, dulcimer, shruti box, percussion (bodhran, stomp pedal) and woodwind (flute and recorder).
Their acclaimed debut full-length album Flowers was released in June 2024 and has received numerous positive press reviews, including this 5-star review from The Morning Star:
“Beautiful… Folksongs that tell stories of female empowerment and a desire for peace… As relevant as ever in our current times.”★★★★★
Website: www.michellpfeifferkulesh.com
RECENT REVIEWS:
“Beautiful harmonies enhanced by being sung in three different languages… Carries messages of peace and female empowerment…” – Folk London ★★★★★
“An astute mix of traditional and original songs with arrangements that delight the ear… A special joy is the trio’s close harmony singing – so tight that you couldn’t blow smoke between them… Hauntingly beautiful.” – Songlines ★★★★
“…The three singers perform their chosen material with care and attention to detail, with excellent accompaniment and, best of all, with delightful vocals whether solo or in glorious harmony… the heartfelt delivery of three very fine musicians.”
– RNR Magazine
Daniel Morden
DANIEL MORDEN is no stranger to FatE. If he isn’t booked, he’s usually in the audience. He is one of the UK’s leading tellers of traditional tales and has told stories for a living for over thirty years, in palaces and prisons, nursery schools and old people’s homes, from Australia to the Arctic. His repertoire ranges from awful jokes to thrilling adventures to poignant myths of love and loss. In 2017 he was awarded the Hay Festival medal for his storytelling. He is also an award-winning author. As a member of THE DEVIL’S VIOLIN, he created haunting performances of stories with live musical accompaniment. In 2020 he was awarded an Arts Council of Wales Grant to develop a podcast of stories to help us respond to the challenges of the Coronavirus pandemic. www.danielmorden.org
Pete Morton
‘Pete is everything we want our singer-songwriters to be. Fiercely creative, proudly independent, skilful, talented, and terminally unpredictable’
Pete Morton began his folk musical journey when he came across a Buffy St Marie record. It was from that moment on he decided to become a folk singer. Discovering the songwriters of the early sixties folk movement, it inspired him to write and take his songs to sing in folk clubs and beyond.
For thirty years Pete has been performing to audiences around the world. Throughout that time he has been regarded as one of the best on the contemporary roots music scene. His latest album ‘A Golden Thread’ has received rave reviews with eight newly self penned songs, a Pete Seeger classic ‘Oh Had I A Golden Thread’ and a version of the traditional gem, ‘Barbry Allen’.
Often referred to as an old time troubadour he has a compelling stage presence and approachable style that delivers an unruly mix of humour, politics, love and social commentary wrapping its way around the folk tradition.
Mike O’Connor and Barbara Griggs
Mike O’Connor and Barbara Griggs are great fun.
They make music of breath-taking beauty on fiddle, concertina, harp and viol. Their unique repertoire is both original and from historic Cornish manuscripts, discovered during years of research. Both are Cornish bards and Barbara is also a Gorsedh harpist.
Mike is known for his beautiful tunes and evocative songs such as The Band Played Trelawny, Geevor Lads, and Carrying Nelson Home, and the iconic folk operas Cornish Lads, Unsung Heroes and The Cry of Tin. For TV’s Poldark he wrote four stunning songs for Eleanor Tomlinson.
Mike is also a nationally respected storyteller and author with a deep knowledge of Cornish folk-lore and mesmerising skill with words. Barbara’s skill at integrating music and words is, appropriately enough, the stuff of legends and has won much praise.
Their epics include the acclaimed Return to Lyonesse: ‘Storytelling Event of the Year’ and winner of a British Award for Storytelling Excellence. Their tale Odysseus Dreaming featured at Sidmouth Festival and Festival at the Edge. Their Cornish folktales are authentic, amusing and engaging.
An evening with Mike and Barbara is relaxed and entertaining, a delightful blend of fact, fiction and music praised as ‘balm for the soul.’
This year they are bringing their epic Prophecy of Merlin to FatE, along with other shows across the weekend.
Website: www.lyngham.co.uk/Mike&Barbara.html
Dave Tonge
Dave Tonge is an itinerant teller of tales – a storyteller and author who performs at museums, heritage sites, festivals fairs, libraries and schools across the UK. He works regularly for English Heritage, the National Trust, the Historic Royal Palaces, The Mary Rose Trust and the Ashmolean, where he runs his ever popular ‘Telling Heritage’ workshops that promote storytelling as an interpretive tool. Dave specialises in telling period rich and often irreverent tales that bring the ‘common sort’, the everyday folk to life. He also enjoys making storytelling accessible to a wider none storytelling audiences in the world of heritage. That said, he still likes to ditch his period costumes once in a while and can, on occasion, be found telling at storytelling events like Taffy Thomas’s Tales in Trust, Settle Stories and Festival at the Edge.
His storytelling collections include Tudor Folk Tales and Medieval Folk Tales for Children, both published by The History Press, with another – Trickster Tales From Many Lands – coming in 2025.
For more information visit:
https://www.facebook.com/dave.tonge.3
Dave is just mesmerising beyond words. I could listen to him all day long
Karen Bruce – John Skelton Festival
Just back from enjoying a spellbinding evening with the legend that is Dave Tonge telling some silly and some sad medieval tales, including the spectacular Sir Gawain and the Green Knight! A triumph of memory, mirth and marvellous mischievous story-weavage!
Debra Creates at Oakham Castle
Dave Tonge had children and adults alike gripped with his stories despite many distractions and wild weather. It was a delight to see that storytelling still holds huge appeal when done as well as this.
Mary Riall, Ufton Court, Educational Trust
The Yarnsmith of Norwich is every inch a mesmeric character, from the tip of his expressive finger-tips to the tilt of tall hat his stage persona grabs the audience’s attention. The stories themselves are irreverent and full of cunning, revel in life and are told with great flair and a real twinkle in the eye. He tells at times with an hypnotic quality, magically drawing you deeper into the tale.
Settle Storytelling Festival
Sef Townsend
Sef Townsend has been telling, sharing and listening to stories, across the globe, for more than thirty years. Much of his work is spent with refugees, and those in asylum detention, and he often tells in churches, mosques, and synagogues, as well as at museums, libraries, festivals and schools around the UK and internationally. He has been involved in Peace & Reconciliation projects in Northern Ireland, South Africa and Israel-Palestine. In the last few years his work has taken him from shantytown schools in South Africa to the National Museums; from the Korean Centre for Traditional Performing Arts, to a remote village and refugee camp in the West Bank.
He has, and continues, to share stories, give workshops and conduct his own research across North Africa, the Middle East, Europe, South America and Asia. He has published two books of folktales for children, with colleague Anne Johnson, and in 2024 was honoured by being made Storytelling Ambassador for the International Academy for Intangible Cultural Heritage. “Sef Townsend … one of our most popular, charismatic and talented storytellers” ( Nell Phoenix, London’s. ‘Torriano Storynight’) “Sef Townsend conjured up visions … conveyed in effective and chilling ‘sprechgesang’ The Stage.
Sarah Liisa Wilkinson
Sarah Liisa Wilkinson is a storyteller who delights audiences with her always engaging, energetic, and playful performance style. She has a particular interest in the folktales and myths of Finland and other Nordic lands, but loves to tell tales from all around the world. She has trained as a performer with Philippe Gaulier, and as a storyteller with Nell Phoenix and Ben Haggarty, and has told stories to people in the UK and internationally in theatres, clubs, pubs, festivals, churches, front rooms and all-night sleepovers. She is a member of The Embers Collective, a storytelling and music group in London.
