Interview: Mel Parsons - Auckland Folk Festival 2026

We caught up with multi-award-winning Ōhinehou Lyttelton songwriter Mel Parsons, who'll be gracing Auckland Folk Festival with a pair of solo performances this Friday and Saturday evening, also participating in APRA’s Songwriter Speaks session on Saturday afternoon. Hosting a wide spectrum of folk (and adjacent) artists from all around Aotearoa and beyond, the festival is happening this coming Auckland Anniversary Weekend at Kumeū Showgrounds, from 23rd to 26th January.

Featuring accessible onsite camping, food and market stalls, flax weaving, pottery, music / dance workshops, and lots more, Auckland Folk Festival is almost certainly Tāmaki Makaurau's longest running music and arts festival (we're not aware of any contenders). The festival traces its history back to the early 1970s, when "Auckland's original folkies gathered at Moller's farm to sing, dance and play together." Sporting five stages and welcoming attendees of all-ages, keep up to date with who's performing when at this year's fest by checking out the official timetable HERE.

Auckland Folk Festival 2026
Friday 23rd January to Monday 26th January (Auckland Anniversary Weekend) - Kumeū Showgrounds, Auckland (all-ages)

Featuring... Adam & Marika, Bazurka, Butter Wouldn't Melt, Cassie & Maggie (CAN), Chelsea Prastiti, Celtic Ferret, Culverake (UK), Dragkroka (SWE), Hinekoia, Tomlinson, Hot Diggity, Jeff Davis (US), Jennifer Reid (UK), Marine / Simonson / Wiskari (SWE), Medena Ensemble, Mel Parsons, Mice on Stilts, Miriam McCombe, Old Man Luedecke (CAN), Olive Mortimer, Parrot in the Pocket, Petty Grass, Rob Thorne, Sammy Leary, Scott Cook & Pamela Mae (CAN), Simon Stanley, Tom Cunliffe, Turkey the Bird, ZORA + more

Full info at aucklandfolkfestival.co.nz
Tickets on sale at eventbrite.co.nz

Chris Cudby: Kia ora Mel! We're all making a wish the wild weather clears up for your performances at the Auckland Folk Festival this coming weekend.

Mel Parsons: This will be my first time being programmed at the festival. Which seems crazy, but I’m very much looking forward to it.

My shows are solo at the festival, which is different from band experience, but just as enjoyable — it makes for a very fun & quite intimate time with the audience. I’m playing at 9pm on Friday, and 6:30pm on Saturday, along with doing APRA’s Songwriter Speaks session at 3:30pm on Saturday.

How did folk music first enter your own life? Are there any specific formative artists who have inspired your own journey in music?

I think it’s always been there, and probably in the broad of sense of folk music most of the artists I grew up listening to are folk artists — Cat Stevens, Joan Baez, Paul Simon, Mark Knopfler, Tracy Chapman… There are a lot of artists that have been added to my list that I love over the years, but I think those formative ones have really stayed with me.

Your new singles have been fearlessly frank and personal — particularly 'Don't Leave the Light On' — with a strong resilient thread, eg. 'Brick by Brick'. Is there a theme binding these newer songs together?

I think my music has always been unapologetically personal, possibly the difference with 'Don’t Leave the Light On' is that I don’t usually speak explicitly to what the song is about, whereas this time I have been very public about it. It was scary going public about the background of that song (domestic abuse) but the point of my decision to do that was with the hope that someone might see themselves in my story and be able to get out sooner than I did. The response was overwhelming, so from that perspective alone it was worth sharing my experience publicly.

I guess all the songs have a thread of how I’m feeling or things I’ve experienced so in that way the songs are always bound together, but I don’t set out to write records with a particular theme in mind. I’m working on more new music at the moment, so definitely more to come in 2026 — watch this space.

Your cousin is the multi-talented Jed Parsons, who drums in your band eg. you when you toured with Crowded House in Australia. This question skews in two different directions actually: Does music run in the Parsons family? And, was your song 'Post High Slide' directly informed by playing those large scale shows?

We come from a big extended family but it’s just Jed & I who are musical (other than Jed’s Dad who is what I would call a very expressive home-opera singer).

'Post High Slide' was filmed on the Crowded House tour, but the song was written well before I knew we even had the support slot. It’s a pretty universal feeling after a big high, which tours often feel like — and the Crowded House tour probably was the epitome of that. The highest of highs followed by the “what the hell do we do now” feeling.

Are there any artists you're hoping to catch at Auckland Folk Festival?

The lineup looks amazing, there are so many cool artists I’m looking forward to that you can’t make me pick a favourite sorry!