Purbeck Rising

Clementine Lovell Trio Photocredit Tony Birch

We have thousands of applications from bands to perform at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival every year. We think we make pretty good choices when it comes to the music but as Purbeck Valley Folk Festival is your festival as well as ours, we thought it might be a good idea to let you do some of the deciding!

Every year we host an online vote where you can select your favourite act. The one you’d like to see perform at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival. We select the top 10 acts out of the applications we’ve received, and then you help us narrow it down to 5! The 5 acts with the most votes will then perform live at the Purbeck Rising Showcase during the festival.

How do I vote?

Between Wednesday 25th March 2026 – Wednesday 1st April 2026 we hosted an online vote where you could vote for your favourite act (out of our top 10).

The 6 acts that received the most votes have now been selected to take part in the Purbeck Rising Showcase at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival 2026.

The acts heading to the Purbeck Rising Showcase are: Because The Bear, Catch The Sparrow, Chloe Matharu, Kelvin Davies & Chloe Turner, Seren, The Water Chorus. You can see them live at the festival on Saturday 22nd August 2026.

Previous winners:

2025 – Clementine Lovell Trio
2024 – Eleanor Dunsdon & Gregor Black
2023 – Arquebus Trio & Rachel Hill (joint winners)
2022 – Rob Clamp
2021 – Calum Gilligan and Dead Horse Bay (joint winners)
2020 – Good Habits
2019 – Ben Morgan-Brown
2018 – Roswell
2017 – Antoine & Owena
2016 – Delphis
2015 – Aidan & the Wildfires
2014 – Lily of Barbary
2013 – Big Tent & the Gypsy Lantern

How do I enter?

Applications to Purbeck Rising 2026 are currently closed.

We will open applications to enter Purbeck Rising 2027 in September 2026, so check back here then. All you’ll have to do is follow a link and fill in a quick form with your name, contact details, and a link to a live YouTube video before the deadline (which is usually in March).

Once the deadline has passed, we will watch & listen to all the applications, and shortlist the top 10 (or so) acts. These shortlisted artists / bands will then be put up for a public vote (usually for a week in March / April) with the 5 most popular acts going through to the Purbeck Rising Showcase.

These 5 acts will perform as part of the Purbeck Rising Showcase at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival from 12pm on the Saturday of the festival – where judges (and the audience) vote for the winner!

Judges at the showcase final include representatives from PVFF, Wimborne Folk Festival, Wessex Folk Festival, Bridport Folk Festival as well as local folk club organisers – so a true showcase!

Fast Track to Final – we reserve the right to hand out a golden ticket and fast track someone to the showcase if we spot them at a local open mic and we think they would do well.

What do I get?

One act will be chosen for a paid slot on a main stage at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival next year.

Representatives from Wimborne, Wessex, and Bridport Folk Festivals and local folk clubs are part of the panel and may also select acts from the showcase to appear at their festivals! 🙂

Calum Gilligan (2021 winner). Playing guitar and singing into a microphone.

Good Habits performing on the Word Stage. They are a duo (1 male & 1 female) and are performing barefoot. The man is on the left playing accordion and the woman is on the right playing double bass.

Ben Morgan-Brown (Winner 2019). Performing at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival with hat on, singing into microphone, sat down, with guitar rested on knee.