Folkestone will host the first Big World Festival from October 1 to 4, 2026, with a program devoted to world music traditions from Africa, Europe, and Asia.
The four-day event will feature UK-based artists with roots in a range of global cultures. Its lineup incudes West African kora music, Armenian duduk, Argentine tango, Bulgarian vocal music, and folk traditions from Britain and Finland.
Violinist and composer Alison Jones and singer, songwriter, and actor Sarah Quist co-founded the festival and serve as its artistic directors. The bill features Suntou Susso, Andrew Cronshaw, Tigran Aleksanyan, Baka Beyond, Alfredo Martin Espindola, Wild Women are Wonderful, and the London Bulgarian Choir.
In addition to concerts, the festival will present workshops and talks related to the musical traditions on the program. Instruments such as the kora, tabla, duduk, marimba, jembe, violin, and bandoneon will form part of the event.
Jones said the festival aims to introduce audiences of different ages and backgrounds to unfamiliar musics. She also cited support from Arts Council England, Roger De Haan, Creative Folkestone, and Central Ward councillors.
Quist said her Ghanaian heritage and her experience of dance and song study in Ghana helped shape the project.
Events will take place at several Folkestone venues, among them Kollectiv, Quarterhouse, the Southcliff Hotel, and the Church of St. Mary & St. Eanswythe.
Andrew Cronshaw and Tigran Aleksanyan
Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Cronshaw will perform with Armenian duduk player Tigran Aleksanyan. Cronshaw uses instruments such as a 74-string electric zither, the marovantele — his hybrid of the Finnish kantele and Malagasy marovany — the Chinese bawu and the Slovak fujara.
His album Ochre received nominations for the BBC Folk Awards and BBC Awards for World Music. Kulku, by his Finnish-British-Armenian group SANS, reached the top of world music charts and won an EMMA award in Finland.
Aleksanyan, who was born in Armenia’s Ararat region, joined the Armenian State Dance Ensemble at 17 and later toured internationally with the company. He also co-founded the Armenian National Duduk Ensemble. His work with Cronshaw combines English, Scottish, and Finnish folk material with Armenian melodies.
Suntou Susso
Gambian musician Suntou Susso is a kora player, percussionist, singer, and composer from a jali (griot) family. His principal instrument is the 22-string kora, a harp-lute associated with Mandinka jali traditions.
Jalis have long served as musicians, oral historians, and advisers within West African communities, with knowledge passed between generations through music, poetry, and spoken history. Susso comes from a family that also includes musicians Seckou Keita, Solo Cissokho, and Mamudou Susso.
Wild Women are Wonderful
Katie Bradley, Sarah Quist, Alison Jones, and Alice Phelps form Wild Women are Wonderful, a Folkestone-based collaboration centered on music, song, and poetry.
The group presents original material influenced by jazz, soul, blues and roots music, with a focus on women’s perspectives from several generations. Its name comes from a song by Carol Grimes, whose work also helped inspire the project.
Wild Women are Wonderful will appear on the same Quarterhouse bill as Baka Beyond.
Baka Beyond
Baka Beyond has combined African and Celtic influences for more than three decades. Martin Cradick and Su Hart created the group after time spent with Baka communities in Cameroon.
The band released its debut album, Spirit of the Forest, in the early 1990s and has maintained links with Baka communities through the charity Global Music Exchange, which directs royalty income and other support to projects there.
Its current personnel includes Cradick and Hart alongside Ayodele, Kibisingo, drummer David O’Farrell and fiddler Ben Weedon.
The London Bulgarian Choir
The London Bulgarian Choir, founded in 2000 by Dessislava Stefanova, performs Bulgarian folk repertoire in both traditional and contemporary arrangements.
Stefanova previously sang with the Philip Koutev Bulgarian National Folk Ensemble in Sofia. The London choir now has about 40 members and is known for repertoire based on Bulgarian asymmetric rhythms, close vocal harmonies, and regional song traditions.
The ensemble has appeared at venues and festivals throughout Europe and has worked with artists such as Cerys Matthews and Nigel Kennedy. It has also appeared in BBC, Netflix and National Theatre productions.
Alfredo Martin Espindola and Tango Terra Quartet
Folkestone-based musician and dancer Alfredo Martin Espindola is associated with Tango Terra Quartet, a London Argentine tango ensemble whose repertoire ranges from Golden Age composers to Astor Piazzolla and later tango styles.
Espindola has studied traditional and contemporary tango for about 25 years and has performed within the UK tango circuit for more than two decades, as well as at European festivals.
He also runs the Tango Terra milonga in Covent Garden, London, which has operated for 15 years.
Big World Festival will run from October 1 to 4, 2026, at venues throughout Folkestone.
For more information and tickets, visit https://www.bigworldfestival.com
Author: World Music Central News Room
World music news from the editors at World Music Central