Unique festival on the beautiful Jurassic Coast

14 - 17 August 2025

Purbeck Rising

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!

How do I vote?

Between Wednesday 26th March 2025 – Wednesday 2nd April 2025 we will host an online public vote where you can vote for your favourite act (out of our top 10).

The 5 acts that receive the most votes will be shortlisted to take part in the Purbeck Rising Showcase Final at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival 2025.

Check back here in March to find out more information on who is in the Top 10 and how to vote!

Previous winners:

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?

To enter Purbeck Rising 2025, artists should fill in the following form with a link to a live YouTube video and their contact details before Friday 7th March 2025.

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 between 26th March – 2nd April 2025 with the 5 most popular acts going through to the final.

The 5 Purbeck Rising Finalists will be invited to attend the festival, as well as perform in the Purbeck Rising Showcase Final from 12pm on Saturday 16th August 2025 – 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 finals if we spot them at a local open mic and we think they would do well in the showcase at the festival.

The prize

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! 🙂

Rachel Hill (2023)
Arquebus Trio (2023)
Calum Gilligan (2021 winner). Playing guitar and singing into a microphone.
Dead Horse Bay (2021 winners).
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.
Roswell performing on the main stage at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival. They are a female duo, both are singing into their microphones and playing guitar.