Tønder Festival 2024 - Final Touches

Tønder Festival 2024 opens on Wednesday 21st August with a concert by the Scottish band Skipinnish.

Women’s Circle and Gentlemen’s Circle are again part of this year's festival. The popular afternoon concerts feature songwriters playing their songs in turn, telling background tales and joining in on each others' songs.

Folk Spot Denmark 2024 has seven names on stage, and this is where you can hear tasty new treats from the Scandinavian folk roots scene. These concerts are a draw, including invited professionals from the international music business and media.

Two bands made the cut before closing time: Jiggy from Ireland and Norwegian Gangar.

Radio hosts Søren Rebbe and Alex Nyborg Madsen are back at Tønder Festival, with their new musical idea, the radio station Radio Mars.

You will also enjoy Folk Tales with Klaus Lynggaard and Henrik Queitsch as well as interviews hosted by Danish music magazine GAFFA Talks.

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Folk Spot Denmark 2024 (DK)

Since 2012, Folk Spot Denmark, an initiative by SPOT Festival and Tønder Festival, has been presenting Danish folk and roots bands with national and international ambitions. This year, seven Nordic folk and roots bands have been chosen by a qualified music jury to take part in Folk Spot Denmark 2024. Come and hear: Maja Kjær Si Orkester, Simone Tang, Som Os, Svøbsk, The Mukherjee Development, Trio Mio and Twang. Folk Spot concerts are audience favourites, as they present newcomers from the Nordic folk roots scene. The concerts are also showcases aimed at the invited international music business and media professionals, who can open international networks for the bands.

Brunch with the Bros – Radio Mars (DK)

For several years now, the two radio hosts, Søren Rebbe and Alex Nyborg Madsen, have been regular fixtures at Tønder Festival, broadcasting their successful programme The Brothers live on Radio Denmark. In 2023, Tønder's audience were delighted to hear them again, and this year they're back at full volume with their very own radio station, Radio Mars. It opened in April this year to impressively postive reactions. Meet Søren Rebbe and Alex Nyborg Madsen live on stage on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in the Bolero Tent, where the two hosts celebrate the Tønder Festival jubilee with informal interviews with – and live music from –current Tønder musicians. Brunch with the Bros, the're calling it, as the audience can buy a modest brunch to start the day, while enjoying Radio Mars. Brunch with the Bros is on Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Bolero from 11 am until 1 pm. 

Women’s Circle (USA, CAN, SCO, DK)

The special afternoon events, Women’s Circle and Gentlemen’s Circle, have been a popular success for many years. Both concerts are on this year's programme. The US songwriter Mary Gauthier, a familiar favourite of Tønder festivalgoers, will be here with her colleague, songwriter Jaimee Harris. From Canada it's Candace Lacina of the Hello Darlins, here for the first time. The Scots singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Fowlis adds Gaelic folk song, and finally we see the return of Signe Svendsen, who has harvested critical praise for her latest album Hvem vil ikke elskes igen (Who Doesn't Want to be Loved Again.) The Songwriter’s Circles arose from Tønder Festival's relaxed, unfettered approach, musicians from across the globe meeting, creating magic moments on stage, swapping roles, now leading, now backing on each others' songs, and spicing the whole thing up with illuminating chat and stories.

Gentlemen´s Circle (USA, CAN, NL, EAU)

This year's Gentlemen’s Circle has six songwriters on the roster, from USA, Canada, Holland, USA and Uganda. The latter is songwriter Jon Muq, who was born and brought up in Kampala in Uganda then moved to USA, where his career really took off. Also from USA we have Tim O’Brien, songwriter, master of bluegrass and a beloved veteran of Tønder Festival's stages. Another dear veteran is the Dutch-born blues and roots guitarist Hans Theessink, who has been appearing at Tønder Festival since the 1970s. From Canada, the songwriter and excellent slide guitarist Joey Landreth is back, with two musicians from the super group The Hello Darlins, Mike Little and Brett Ashton.

Jiggy (IRL)

Jiggy, from Ireland, more a musicians' collective than a band, have been showered with recognition round the world in recent years. Jiggy blend traditional Irish folk music with inciting grooves and inspiration from the diversity of world music. In 2017 Jiggy released a debut album Translate, which Folk Radio UK Magazine called "an exceptional and intoxicating album." The video to the song Silent Place, a paean to dance as global communication, achieved over 65 million hits on line. A huge audience discovered Jiggy and the album Translate topped World Music hitlists in Ireland, USA, Canada, France, Australia, Poland and the UK. Their calendar filled with festival gigs, and Jiggy have performed in USA, India, Kazakhstan and several European lands. In 2020 the band put out the album Hypernova, which inspired The Living Tradition magazine's praise: "New and old, freshly ancient and anciently refreshing."

Gangar (NO)

The Norwegian band Gangar (not to be confused with Danish Ganger) are from Oslo and played their first concert in 2021. Their sparkling version of nordic folk roots music hasn't taken long to accrue a fine reputation both in Norway and abroad. Gangar's five musicians launch from traditional Scandinavian folk music, then rearrange it inspired by rock, metal and jazz improvisation. In 2022 Gangar released the EP Tre Danser (Three Dances), and in autumn 2023, the album Stubb appeared.  Gangar's five members are Mattias Truell Thedens, Hardanger fiddle; Oskar Goedvriend Lindberget, saxophone; Richard Max, guitar; Jonas Thrana Jensen, bass; and Henrik Dullum, drums.

Folk Tales with Klaus Lynggaard and Henrik Queitsch
The two hosts Klaus Lynggaard and Henrik Queitsch covered a lot of ground in their popular podcast Rockhistorier (Rock Tales). From lullabies to raging rock, from rebellious soul to heartbroken country, from musicals to metal. And just about everything in between. Their mantra is, there are only two kinds of music: good music and bad music. Simple, when they get to decide which is which. Guests drop in occasionally to give the broadcasts a selection of their favourites, music that has influenced them as people and as musicians. That's the format now. Folk Tales will invite musicians from this year's Tønder Festival in for a chat on stage about the music that changed their world.

GAFFA Talks at Tønder Festival

This year once more you can hear GAFFA Talks at Tønder Festival. Journalists from Denmark's biggest and oldest music magazine, GAFFA, which turned 40 in 2023, interview some of Tønder Festival's current musicians. The chats will take about 45 minutes and will focus on the artist's career and songwriting, followed by questions from the audience. Perhaps the musicians will play a song or two.

The Family Universe
In the Family Universe, children and their parents can find space and time to play in many creative, entertaining and amusing ways with a variety of recycled materials. Design and make your own festival T-shirt, read a good book or throw a wobbly on the grass. In the Family Universe you will meet a group of playful and creative play-group students from the Young Years College in Tønder. The activities are aimed at children from 0 to 12 years of age accompanied by a grown-up. On Saturday, the Jam Tent has a family concert, where old and young can meet Hoppeline, Frække Frø and Pernille Germansen and her band.

Tønder Festival 2024:

Rickie Lee Jones (USA), Rodney Crowell (USA), Skerryvore (SCO), Brent Cobb (USA), Asleep At The Wheel (USA), The Bros. Landreth (CAN), The Wood Brothers, (USA), Jim Lauderdale & The Game Changers (USA), Niels Hausgaard (DK), David Ritschard (SE), Vincent Neil Emerson (USA), Capercaillie (SCO), Katie Pruitt (USA), True Heart Troubadours: Tim O’Brien with Jan Fabricius and Mary Gauthier with Jaimee Harris (USA), Leftover Salmon (USA), Albin Lee Meldau (SE), Melissa Horn (SE), Dan Sultan (AUS), Elephant Sessions (SCO), Hush (DK), Jacob Dinesen (DK), Jonah Blacksmith (DK), Jake Vaadeland (CAN), The Hello Darlins (CAN), Xabi Aburruzaga (EUS), Folkeklubben (DK), S.G. Goodman (USA), Julie Fowlis (SCO), Foy Vance (UK), Sivert Høyem (NO), The Southern Jutland Symphony Orchestra feat. Bjørn Eidsvåg (NO, DK), Kassi Valazza (USA), Elles Bailey (ENG), Hans Theessink & Blue Groove (NL, USA, UK, GRN), Phosphorescent (USA), Fara (SCO), Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors (USA), The McCrary Sisters (USA), Jon Muq (EAU/USA), Kinnaris Quintet (SCO), Skipinnish (SCO), Kellie Loder (CAN), Peatband Faeries (SCO), Big Bike Orchestra (PL), Sebastian Wolff (DK), Jeffrey Martin (USA), FolkBALTICA Ensemblet (DE, DK), Justine Boesen (DK), Sylfide (DK), Kunsten at glædes i kor (The Joy of Singing Together)(DK), Schools concert 2024: Guldimund with band plus FolkBALTICA Ensemble (DK, DE), Folk Spot 2024 (DK).

Tønder Festival 21st, 22nd, 23rd and 24th August 2024

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