Artists for the relaunch event 2026
Brown Wimpenny - Trades Club
A collective who mine the transcendental collective power of traditional folk music, Brown Wimpenny, split between Manchester, London and Liverpool, are bringing communities together to celebrate that rich catalog of folk songs owned by no individual in particular bar humanity itself.
Taking their name from a distant 19th century relative of tenor banjoist Seth Lockwood’s, Brown Wimpenny began with informal get-together Sunday jam sessions in his Manchester living room. Growing as large as 25 members before being whittled down to its current number of 11, early gigs saw the band take up half the capacity of the room they were playing in, lyrics being passed around to attendees too, as part of a broader ideal of reducing the gap between audience and performer. The band see themselves as a shared social and creative endeavour, rejoicing in the collective and communal. "We’re not over-egging anything. We’re just seeing it and playing as it is.”
Jennifer Reid - Trades Club
Jennifer Reid performs Industrial Revolution work song in the Lancashire dialect and Manchester street song. Sixteen years in, she moves between worlds with ease. She was once described as having “irreverent puckish vim” in a mag. She plays Barb in Shane Meadows’ The Gallows Pole, has opened for Pulp and John Cooper Clarke and performed for Chanel’s Metiers d’Art. She’s toured with Eliza Carthy for 18 months, and in 2025-6, took her songs to Aotearoa and Australia for four months to critical acclaim. She was awarded the Dennis Dubetz Award for her contributions to Cygnet Folk Festival in Tasmania in February 2026.
Rooted in archives and oral histories, her work braids nineteenth-century music with the present: teaching, performing, researching, sharing, advocating and supporting spaces for memory and making in the tradition.
She studied at Oxford, specialising in the ballad collections of Manchester and has shaped sound for radio, stage and screen. She is published by DIY organisations and academia. Her research has taken her from Venice to Dhaka via New York, where she asked whether the Industrial Revolution ever really ended. She’s spoken on weaving songs in Bangladesh and Manchester, worked with scientists, poets, musicians, historians and universities and still finds time to sing stories that refuse to be forgotten.
Satnam Galsian - Trades Club
Satnam Galsian is a British Asian singer-songwriter and progressive folk artist from
Leeds. Through her distinctive sound, Satnam weaves together Punjabi folk
traditions, personal storytelling and contemporary perspectives, creating music that
is both rooted in heritage and distinctly her own.
Drawing from her own experiences of identity, belonging and self-discovery, Satnam
creates deeply personal work rooted in feminist storytelling and centred on women’s
experiences. Her songwriting explores the complexities of navigating multiple cultural
worlds while celebrating the strength that comes from embracing one’s authentic
self.
Open Folk Session - Trades Club
FREE ENTRY (no ticket required) after 10:30pm
To round off the evening the Townfolk folk are getting together for an Open Session.
Come along, have a listen, have a play, have a chat, have fun! And then its time to look forward to next year's BIG EVENT!