Gift of free Woodford Folk Festival tickets

Woodford Folk Festival is offering 100 free season camping tickets to this year’s event, thanks to the generosity of a long-time Woodfordian family.

It comes as organisers urge supporters to buy their tickets, with pre-sales down 15 per cent.

The 100 free season camping tickets have been provided by a family, whose connection to Woodford spans three generations, and wanted to give back to the community that has brought them so much joy over the years.

People who would like to attend the festival, but ‘need extra support this year’ can apply from now until 9am December 13 via a short online application form. Successful applicants will be notified by 5pm on December 13.

Challenging times

Festival organisers have issued an urgent call for supporters to buy tickets to this year’s festival, which will go ahead but is facing a significant financial shortfall.

Sharing a statement, Festival Director Amanda Jackes, Woodfordia President Lachlan Brown, and Founder Bill Hauritz AM detail the headwinds Woodford is facing.

“These are challenging times, and like many of you, we’re struggling,” they said. “We feel it’s important to let you know how we’re doing, and to update you on a concerning current state of ticket sales,” the statement says.

Revealing that the festival is currently 15 per cent down in pre-sales, the team says if that trend in pre-sales continues, “the shortfall will threaten the festival’s future”.

“Despite rising event costs, we’ve worked hard to keep core ticket price increases to a minimum,” the statement says.

Adding that adult day tickets have only increased by eight per cent (from $130 to $140), and adult season camping tickets have increased by four per cent (from $647 to $672) in the past six years; the Woodford team are hoping that punters remember that this year’s programme was “enthusiastically received” and “one of the strongest we’ve put together.”

Ball Park Music, King Stingray, Tia Gostelow, and Baker Boy will headline the 2024/25 festival during which 450 artists will perform across six days (December 27, 2024 – January 1, 2025), including Yothu Yindi, Beccy Cole, Dan Sultan, Bic Runga, Ngaiire, Alex The Astronaut, Jaguar Jonze, The Joy, JDFR, Josh Pyke, Ash Grunwald, Husky, Elephant Sessions, Digging Roots, Ysé, AURUS, Amanda Rheume, Aysanabee, and Tjaka.

“We know interest rates and inflation are high, and the cost of living is affecting most of us,” the Woodford team say. “But we have a truly wonderful program this year, and we believe the festival still offers the best value for families and individuals seeking a time to unwind, reconnect and prepare for the year ahead.”

Reminding punters that “this serious predicament did not just come out of the blue,” Woodford organisers say the event has weathered “numerous existential challenges beyond our control” during the past six years.

“The pandemic wiped out our festivals for two years, leaving many artists and arts workers with little or no work. Bringing the land back to host our community festival safely proved much harder and more expensive than we ever anticipated.

“After the pandemic, costs to stage the festival surged by up to 40 per cent. We had to rebuild our team and nurture the organisation back to being a large-scale festival producer. We made it through then with your support. Just.

“We still remember asking our team in 2022 if we should bring the festival back that year. The passion and commitment of our organisers that May was truly memorable. The overwhelming response from you, our patrons, when you bought tickets early and returned to Woodfordia for WFF 22/23, was one of the best moments in our community’s history.

“Perhaps that success made us a little too confident that we’d weathered the worst and could move forward with optimism.”

Launching into the 23/24 festival after a successful 2022 event, strong planning and ticket sales couldn’t help a national crisis of cancelled festivals or a cyclone in November bringing “challenging weather” through December.

Due to those factors, Woodford 23/24 was affected by lower attendance, which led to a “financially devastating result.”

To find out more about this year’s festival and to get tickets, visit the website