Eight New Names at Tønder Festival
A variegated tapestery of genres and styles, music from several continents, many traditions, and as always, innovation.
From Scots Folk Rock to Afrofuturist Blues
We are excited to add eight more names to next year's festival roster in a variegated tapestery of genres and styles, music from several continents, many traditions, and as always, innovation.
Why should Grammy-winning American afrofuturist folk blues, folk rock from Scotland, Irish roots, Nordic/Kurdish electronica and Balkan beats from Copenhagen be mutually exclusive? Here be intimate narratives, ecstatic energy and magnificent stage shows.
American roots and blues meet afrofuturism
Jake Blount and Fantastic Negrito represent two generations of American music rooted in Afroamerican folk, blues and R&B.
Jake Blount brings banjo, violin and electric guitar to this afrofuturist meeting of centuries-old traditions and modern æsthetics.
Grammy winner Fantastic Negrito returns to Tønder Festival following his successful first appearance at the 2025 festival, serving up Mississippi blues, funk, R&B and poignant stories.
Scottish folk rock and Irish voices
Scotland's Skerryvore and Heidi Talbot both have strong Tønder Festival affiliations. Skerryvore, the country's leading folk rock band, will end Saturday evening's Open Air programme, a fitting celebration of their 20th anniversary live album Skerryvore XX – Live at Floors Castle.
Irish born but based in Edinburgh, Heidi Talbot with her band will favour Tønder Festival with songs and music from her upcoming album Grace Untold, dedicated to heroines both mythological and from her family history.
Danish tones of multiple origin
Nearer to home, our 2026 festival presents two significant Danish names. AySay unite Anatolian folk traditions and Nordic electronica, with singer Luna Ersahin exploring Danish, Kurdish and Turkish identities.
Bye Bye Brenda, Stine Bramsen and Kajsa Vala's new duo, offer personal country and americana songs with sweet vocal harmonies and melancholic lyrics.
Balkan beats and Nordic melodies
The Copenhagen band Tako Lako, characterised by Balkan and gypsy beats, are back after some years away, while Jesper Lindell & The Brunnsvik Sounds from Sweden, with full band and a US tour under their belts, present their latest album Before The Sun.
Tønder Festival 2026 has thus another eight top-class musical cards in our hand. International stars and Scandinavian talents cross traditional frontiers, giving a potent concoction on the festival stages.
THE MUSICIANS:
Jake Blount (USA)
Jake Blount, based in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, is an award-winning musician drawing on Black American folk music. Originally an estimated string band musician, Jake Blount pioneered a way through sound and song archives to arrive at what is known as the 'afrofuturistisk' style. In his hands, banjo, violin, electric guitar and synthesizer become ceremonial artifacts to conjure his forefathers' rebellious creativity into the present. 30 year-old Jake Blount gives sought-after solo concerts as well as festival performances with full band, crowd surfing and ecstatic chants. His recordings link centuries-old traditional songs with modern Afroamerican music.
Blount balances his penchant for age-old source material and his desire to reach a wider audience. Ha has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Newport Folk Festival, Library of Congress and NPR’s Tiny Desk.
Since his debut album Spider Tales (2020), his releases have figured on 'best of the year' lists in the most respected music media, and he has several nominations and awards to his name.
Jake Blount's studio work includes collaborations with Adia Victoria, Dave Hause and Adeem the Artist, among others, support for Grammy-winners like Rhiannon Giddens and Molly Tuttle. He has travelled the world playing in old time groups Tui and The Moose Whisperers. He regularly plays with musicians like Mali Obomsawin, George Jackson and Nic Gareiss and has appeared with the Kronos Quartet at their sell-out 50th anniversary show at Carnegie Hall.
At Tønder Festival Jake Blount will be playing with his band, in his only Danish appearance in 2026.
Fantastic Negrito (USA)
Since Fantastic Negrito took the stage at last year's Tønder Festival with his own particular blend of old-school blues, funk and R&B, and made such an impression on the audience, we naturally had to invite him back this year. The 57 year-old musician whose everyday name is Xavier Amin Dphrepaulezz grew up in an orthodox Muslim family in USA. As a young man he moved to Oakland, where he met hiphop, punk and funk, but he reverted to his musical roots: the Mississippi blues and the Afroamerican music traditions.
He released his first album in 1996, gaining a record contract under the name of Xavier. Life took a dramatic turn in 1999, when he was involved in a car crash that almost killed him and which cost him his guitar-playing ability.15 years later, he reinvented himself as Fantastic Negrito with an album of the same name in 2014. The following year, he won the American Tiny Desk Contest, sponsored by National Public Radio, NPR. Since then, he has won three Grammies in the Best Contemporary Blues Album category, most recently in 2021 with the album Have You Lost Your Mind Yet? (2020).
Fantastic Negrito has a large output. Among recent releases is the album White Jesus Black Problems from 2022, inspired by his ancestral history in Virginia in the 1750s and the tale of a romance between a white woman and a black slave. In 2023 came the album Grandfather Courage, followed by the latest, Son of a Broken Man in 2024.
At this year's Tønder Festival, Fantastic Negrito will again perform with his band, in their only Danish performance in 2026.
Skerryvore (SCO)
It's reciprocal: the Tønder Festival audience loves them, and they love the Tønder audience right back. Tønder Festival means something special to the Scottish folk rock band Skerryvore, who first connected with Danish listeners right here at Tønder Festival.
From 2011 and on, Skerryvore have played at our festival seven times, most recently in 2024. Now they're back and it's in a prime time spot: they are playing the final slot on the Open Air stage on Saturday evening.
Skerryvore formed in 2004, when brothers Daniel (accordion) and Martin Gillespie (accordion, bagpipes), joined up with drummer Fraser West and singer Alec Dalglish. The other musicians are Craig Espie (violin), Scott Wood (bagpipes, flute), Jodie Bremaneson (bass) and Alan Scobie (keyboards). Their career has taken them round the world, won them numerous prizes, and they have made nine albums.
It's not wrong to say that Skerryvore inherited the crown as Scotland's leading folk rock band after Runrig retired in 2018. This eight-piece band build on the same foundations, the music traditions of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. But Skerryvore mine other influences, too: they draw on cajun, country and rock in various guises.
The band's latest album Skerryvore XX – Live at Floors Castle (2025), recorded live at the historic Floors Castle in the Scottish Borders, is an anniversary project to mark the band's twentieth year. The album's 15 tracks illustrate their progress from their Scots roots to their current global status, and involves guests such as Nathan Carter and The Eves and a grandiose finale with The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo Pipes and Drums.
www.skerryvore.com
Heidi Talbot (IRL/SCO)
Irish-born singer Heidi Talbot, who lives in Edinburgh now, has led a fascinating musical life including folk, roots and modern music. Growing up in Co. Kildare, she had her international breakthrough with the Irish-American band Cherish the Ladies, and has sung all over, including at The White House in Washington, the Opera House in Sydney, and many more.
Famous for her fine, bright voice and her talent for many musical genres, Heidi Talbot has toured on most continents and worked with musicians like Mark Knopfler, Graham Coxon, Eddi Reader and Jerry Douglas.
Her nine solo albums show an arc from traditional roots to personal, self-produced projects. Among the high spots are four releases for Compass Records and the critical success song Sing It for a Lifetime (2022), which she sang at her 2022 Tønder Festival appearance.
Heidi Talbot's forthcoming album Grace Untold (release date: 21 November 2025) marks her producing debut and hails female power through myth and memory. The album tells of Ireland's godesses and heroines like Grace O’Malley, Brigid of Kildare and Anna Parnell, as well as women in Heidi Talbot's own family.
With her long-standing collaborator Boo Hewerdine, Heidi Talbot draws on inspiration from Mary Black and Nanci Griffith to make music that is brilliant, honest and deeply compassionate. At Tønder Festival in 2026 Heidi Talbot will perform with her band.
Watch Tønder Festival's back stage Heidi Talbot interview from 2022: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OO0AD3djpy4
AySay (DK)
AySay are the Danish band who mix Anatolian folk music and Nordic electronica. Singing in Danish, Kurdish and Turkish, they set up a psychodelic space that effaces borders, leaving only the raw human experience, undulating between hope and despair.
AySay embody diversity, bridging culture gaps. Luna Ersahin's fascinating, vital singing voice leads and she plays saz; with Aske Døssing Bendixen (drums, percussion) and Carl West Hosbondved (electric guitar), they join forces to create music that moves between Scandinavian landscapes and the heart of Anatolia. The way they combine traditional instruments with modern pop and electronic elements crosses borders and connects worlds.
The band have won four Danish Music Awards Roots and the Carl Prize, and their two albums, Su Akar (2021) and KÖY (2023) have confirmed their status as one of Denmark's most original bands. AySay have delighted audiences at Roskilde Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Les Escales, Eurosonic and Reeperbahn and have toured in Europe, Canada, Greenland and Turkey.
The singer, Luna Ersahin, is one of the most remarkable Danish voices. Her songs depict life as a Kurdish/Danish woman in today's Denmark powerfully yet vulnerably. She gives language tone and gives nationality sound. In her music, identity is not either/or but a diverse world of music.
Besides the AySay concerts, you can hear Luna Ersahin as part of the Minority Language Circle, where she will sing in Kurdish.
Bye Bye Brenda (DK)
Stine Bramsen and Kajsa Vala are friends who make music together. Their mutual empathy furthers the creative process, writing songs borne by their delicate harmonies that melt in a musical symbiosis. Stine had long dreamt of making an album expressing her more introvert side. Meeting Kajsa opened the way so that lyrics and music gave life to the quieter sides we all possess. In January 2025, their album Landmarks was released and Bye Bye Brenda was a reality.
Inspired by singers like Kacey Musgraves, Bon Iver and Phoebe Bridgers, Bye Bye Brenda, with deep musicality and feeling, write authentic songs. The duo's intense stage presence, at the likes of Heartland and Roskilde Festival, has reviewers and audience alike reaching for the expensive adjectives.
When the duo grace festival stages again in the summer of 2026, you can expect intimate concerts full of honest, poetic narratives, country and americana colouring and vocal harmonies that chime profoundly.
"Stine Bramsen's voice is like a therapeutic light box. And Kajsa Vala plays confident, grounded guitar," wrote Copenhagen daily Politiken, praising moreover the women's harmony singing: "their harmonies dispel even a Danish winter gloom."
www.theartist.dk/artist/bye-bye-brenda
Tako Lako (DK)
This Balkan band from Copenhagen, Tako Lako, rose to cult status in the 2010s, repeatedly entrancing audiences and impressing critics with their wild, almost magical live performances. Now, after a break, they are returning to live appearances. The band name is Serbocroat and means 'so easy' or 'no problem.' Their Balkan roots also show in their down-to-earth, high-energy approach to the music, playing 'tako lako' - keep it light and fun.
Winning awards has taken Tako Lako's psychedelic Balkan beats out into the big wide world. Their impressive international career includes appearances at festivals such as Glastonbury Festival, SXSW, Bestival and Sziget, besides hundreds of Danish shows, at Roskilde Festival, Smukfest, Music i Lejet and many more.
However, psychedelic gypsy beats, shows in English dance clubs and tour buses on European motorways are a far cry from children's bedtimes, lunch boxes and playgroups. Tako Lako took a break in 2019. The inner gypsy flame was not quenched, nonetheless. When, in the spring of 2025, Jonny Hefty & Jøden invited Tako Lako to play at their 25th anniversary concert, Tako Lako jumped at it. After a giant hiphop / Balkan mashup show with Jonny Hefty & Jøden and DJ Static at Grimfest 2025, that old gypsy flame was rekindled, and Tako Lako are now officially back in business.
In Tønder, it's the band's new show and new music that await you. But the limitless energy is unchanged.
Jesper Lindell & The Brunnsvik Sounds (SE)
When Jesper Lindell was 13, he was a quiet, rather shy boy, although he was the most talented young footballer in his home town of Ludvika, a Swedish working town an hour or two north west of Stockholm. During a game, he suffered a bad leg fracture that put him in a wheelchair. His big brother Anton would cheer him up by playing the guitar for him and showed him a couple of chords. 15 years later, the then 28 year-old songwriter, singer and guitarist had a hit with his debut single Moving On (2017), released with the help of Swedish stars First Aid Kit. The song went gold.
In the spring of 2025, Jesper Lindell with his band The Brunnsvik Sounds put out the wonderful album Before The Sun. That album was a follow-up to Twilight (2022), which was a product of the corona crisis.
Before The Sun achieved a noteworthy second place in the Swedish Top-40 and has now also been released by an American record company. The band have just completed a month's tour of USA, where they garnered glowing reviews. At Tønder Festival, Jesper Lindell will be playing with The Brunnsvik Sounds: Jimmy Reimers (guitar, violin, trumpet and vocal), Simon Wilhelmsson (drums), Anton Lindell (bass), Rasmus Fors (keyboards) and Carl Lindval (keyboards).
Their only Danish show in 2026.
Tønder Festival 2026 – so far:
Aaron Lee Tasjan (USA), Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys (UK), Joce Reyome (CAN), Erik Koskinen (USA), Ron Sexsmith (CAN), The Brothers Comatose (USA), James McMurtry (USA), Susan O´Neill (IRL), Ulige Numre (DK), Susto Stringband (USA), Sunny War (USA), Poul Krebs (DK), Emily Scott Robinson (USA), The Felice Brothers (USA), Rum Ragged (CAN), Daniel Lanois (CAN), Fantastic Negrito (USA), Jesper Lindell & The Brunnsvik Sounds (SE), Skerryvore (SCO), Bye Bye Brenda (DK), Jake Blount (USA), AySay (DK), Heidi Talbot (IRL/SCO), Tako Lako (DK).
Tønder Festival 26th, 27th, 28th and 29th August 2026
www.facebook.com/tonderfestival
Twitter: @tonderfestival
Instagram: TONDERFESTIVAL
Tickets: www.tf.dk
News
Tønder Festival presents Daniel Lanois
Tønder Festival is delighted to announce that the world-famous Canadian musician and producer Daniel Lanois is coming to our festival in 2026. It will be his only show in Denmark next year.
Seven More Names Announced
With the addition of seven names to the 2026 programme, Tønder Festival maintains its gold standard: great tales, powerful musical energy and cohesion between past and present listening experiences.
The first eight names for next year’s line-up
From a British folk explosion to Californian “golden grass” and American world-class songwriters. Tønder Festival kicks off strongly with the first eight artists announced for the 2026 poster.
