The Folk Album Of The Year Award has been announced for its inaugural first outing.
The new annual award has an aim to celebrate folk music’s most artistically acclaimed album releases in a single year period.
The award will shortlist eight shortlisted albums released in 2025, with the overall winner unveiled at an inaugural ceremony featuring live performances from nominated artists.
The live streamed event will take place at Rochdale Town Hall on Tuesday 17 March 2026 in front of an invited audience of 200 musicians and industry professionals.
Nominees will be selected by a distinguished panel of performers, music and media professionals, chaired by celebrated English folk singer-songwriter and Executive Producer of BBC Radio 2’s ‘The Folk Show’, Kellie While.
The full jury will be announced in the coming months, and the shortlisted albums revealed in November.
The Folk Album of the Year Award aims to showcase the breadth and diversity of the genre’s community across the UK and the Republic of Ireland, celebrating originality, artistic quality and cultural impact, regardless of commercial profile.
Submissions are now open to artists and their representatives, including labels and publishers, and will close at 23:59 on Sunday 31 October 2025.
The Award has been created by music charity Sound Roots and the award-winning podcast Folk on Foot hosted by broadcaster Matthew Bannister. Each nominated album will be spotlighted in its own album profile show on Folk on Foot as part of a special eight-part series in early December 2025.
The Award also complements the Sound Roots-commissioned Official Folk Albums Chart, which has run monthly since 2020 in collaboration with the Official Charts Company and highlights around 120 new folk releases each year.
Submissions Open
Calling for submissions from artists, labels and publishers here — deadline is 31 October 2025
8 albums to be shortlisted by a jury of performers, music and media professionals
Nominees to perform and winner revealed at live finale on 17 March 2026
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
Surely its Britain & Ireland rather than the UK and the Rep of Ireland – Irish traditional/folk music is defined as being from the island rather than from either jurisdiction on the island.