The Warburton Valley Market is back for another series of Markets in 2025.
The market is always on the first Sunday of month with the next Market on Sunday, February | 11am-3pm
Join us for a magical day out along the banks of Birrarung (Yarra) River!
Location: Behind The Arts Centre Warburton
ENJOY: – A variety of Stalls: – Delicious food – Fresh local produce – Unique art and craft – FREE ENTRY – FAMILY FRIENDLY – Picnic area on the lawn – LIVE ENTERTAINMENT
Come and join us for a day out by the river in beautiful Warburton. With a large array of art, craft, local produce stalls and more… There is something for everyone!
We are delighted to have Afro Moses returning to the market with his energetic and culturally enriching performance. Joining him on stage we will have our very own local percussionist Leanne Hall, adding to the performance to create an uplifting show, sure to get you dancing!
Afro Moses Bio:
Afro Moses, also known as Moses O’Jah, is a multi-talented Ghanaian-Australian singer/songwriter who is widely acknowledged as one of Ghana’s most internationally renowned artists. Because of his enthusiastic and somewhat quirky performances, he is frequently referred to as the African James Brown.
He grew up in the Ghanaian hamlet of Ateiku, where he began gathering local youngsters at an early age to teach them how to make their own instruments and perform.
He holds high regard for African culture, which is shown in all of his songs and performances. Afro Moses is a natural-born entertainer and speaker with a magnetic presence that draws crowds in the thousands to his concerts, where he has shared the stage with great names such as Ziggy Marley, Angelique Kidjo, Salif Keita, Michael Franti, Xavier Rudd, and Richard Tognetti.
His solo performances are instructive, incorporating 14 traditional African instruments that not only inspire and soothe the mind, body, and soul but also make you want to dance! His use of classic instruments combined with modern methods astounds his audience, particularly the young.
He also performed and composed music for the short film Inja, which received an Academy Award or Oscar nomination in 2003. He is a member of the Moses Ojah Band, which he leads.
Debi, No Victims, Do Me Wrong, Mama Africa, Ka ne Wu, Home Sweet Home, Judas, African Market Makola, Yele yele, Dabi Nsroma, Nsama, Nice Girl, and Highlife Carnival are just a few of his songs.
Support Act: Maite
Maite is well known in the Valley as part of the Misfits Theatre Group.
Misfits is an organisation that provides young people with a safe place to belong and empowers them through creativity.
Song Writers and Creative Writers are programs they run on a weekly basis to empower young creatives to develop their voices and to share it with the wider world.
Maite performs originals and covers exploring awfully human themes like self-image, the overwhelming weight of cloudy thoughts, and the fragile nature of relationships.
Music is, for Maite, both a form of release, self-understanding, and catharsis while giving others the opportunity to connect and know that they are not alone in their own struggles.
Very Excited to announce that our Feature Performers for the 3rd November Valley Market Warburton are the Szara Fox Duo!
The Szara Fox Duo concoct fiery and irresistible nomadic dance grooves influenced by Flamenco and Balkan genres in an untamed and mesmerising live show. A European singer-songwriter who weaves an elemental sensuality through tales of wanderlust, revelation, empowerment and what lies beyond the horizon.
Constructing a flaming temple of sonic beauty full of fire and transcendence, the duo feature the sublime talents of the songwriter and unique rhythm guitarist Szara Fox and fiery, evocative trumpet player and singer Andrew Darling.
Come join us at this busy, vibrant but chilled Sunday Market, behind the Arts Centre, on the lawn, beside the Birrarung river… 11am – 3pm.
Please join us for The Warburton Valley Market in conjunction with The River Folk Festival on Sunday 6th October for a family fun day out in beautiful Warburton!
Set along the banks of Birrarung (Yarra) River behind The Arts Centre Warburton.
There will be live entertainment for all to enjoy, with Awol Monks, Mandy Connell & Lothlorien.
AWOL Monks:
AWOL MONKS are an acoustic duo from The Yarra Valley. The band formed in 2020 from two music loving friends who met in their teens and reignited their passion for music with a shared love of Artists such as Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Jimi Hendrix.
AWOL MONKS brings a unique brand of entertainment fusing soaring vocals and enchanting rhythms, captivating audiences with their engaging and theatrical performance. Boasting a mixture of originals and unique interpretations of covers, AWOL MONKS will make you want to dance and sing along. Their musical chemistry and passion is known to silence the room!
Mandy Connell:
Mandy Connell’s openness is what stands out from any performance. A forceful singer, and a competent guitar player in multiple tunings, Connell’s personality stands out and has done so in her session work, her interview series An Otherwise Quiet Room, collaborations, and of course songwriting and her captivating solo shows.
Connell is part country and part folk. Trills and affectations straight from Celtic tradition cut through songs as fresh and original as if they were written in your backyard.
Lothlorien:
90s festival Afro Celtic Folk Funk band Lothlorien have formed again after a long hiatus. This line up takes the best of Lothlorien’s past and mixes it with new found instrumentation bringing back some of the classic world folk/funk dance fusion hits as well as the collection of new and beautiful lyric in the bardic genre and song penned by Nic Morrey.
With 30 years on stage and in the making, this music is a genre of its own. The closest description given is mixing the incredible string band with Donovan and Andreas Vollenweider. The performance will take the listener on a journey with music from Greece, the Andes, Ireland, through middle earth and back again, unsure if you should sit and listen or dance it all out, either way this formation is hot off the press and calls to those in search of a musical experience.
With Nic Morrey on 12 string and vocals, Llewellyn Osborne on violin and viola, Michael Arvanitakis on cello and double bass and Roderick McLeod on djembe kit, hand pan and kora.
Craft:
We love to support local Arts, Crafts and Produce.
Enjoy a weaving activity with Monika Poray.
Enjoy various weaving activities for all ages with artist Monika Poray. Have a try at stitch weaving with raffia or simple loom weaving with various yarn. Colouring in options available also. (Ages under 8 require adult supervision.)
Very Excited to announce that our Feature Performer for the 4th August Valley Market Warburton is Ash King!
Ash King
Ash King
Ash King
Ash King is a blues & roots singer-songwriter from Healesville in Victoria. With his deep powerhouse voice and funky guitar work, Ash balances soulful feel and raw energy. Think John Butler meets Johnny Cash at a BBQ and you’re not far off.
As a solo acoustic artist and frontman of blues-rock band Smoke Stack Rhino, Ash has taken his high-energy live show around Australia, often having too much fun dancing across the stage with his guitar that he forgets to sing the next verse.
After almost 20 years of writing music, he’s finally heading into the studio to record his debut solo album. His original songs offer a refreshingly honest take on love, lust, passion, struggle, change and the world around us. ‘I like the saying that “you don’t write the song, the song writes you”, Ash says.
Ash is an engaging storyteller, an electrifying performer, and a fresh voice in Australian blues & roots.
We’re excited to also have Michael Arvanitakis performing at the Valley Market Warburton in August supporting Ash King.
Michael is a multi-instrumentalist crossing many genres, including jazz, classical, rock and world music.
He studied double bass (improvisation) at VCA, and has studied the sitar with masters in Varanasi, India. His main area of study in recent years has been the cello, focusing on classical as well as improvised forms of music.
Recording and performing credits include Gotye, The Teskey Brothers, Dallas Frasca and was a long-term member of the Jed Rowe Band Yarra Valley Trio The Anecdote.
Current projects include Wandering Arc, Szara Fox and the Midnight Secrets and Lothlorien.
Michael will be performing multi-instrumental looping whilst incorporating original grooves and soundscapes with unique interpretations.
We have some wonderful musicians lined up for July’s Valley Market Warburton!
Feature: Blin & Joel: 1pm-3pm
Blin and Joel share a love for the old school dreamy jazz classics and realised years ago they could happily jam out and improvise on these beautifully crafted songs of yesteryear.
They have recently rekindled their shared love and put together some of their favourites to share with others.
Joel Smithard is a seasoned pianist and vintage keyboard aficionado who is in heavy demand throughout the Melbourne music scene. Performing on festival stages and venues alike Joel is diverse in his ability to fit many genres including Jazz.
Blin Vanheems fronted her band Daisy West for years wielding her axe and powerful voice to crush and caress her audience into hypnotic submission… sometimes tender, sometimes brutal, her songs swayed the hearts of many.
Their own craft combined is sensitive, heartfelt and timeless.
It evokes a certain lost chivalry like an old movie. Unashamedly sentimental and nostalgic.
Support: Phoebe Like the Moon, 12pm-12.45pm
‘Phoebe like the Moon’ is a Warburton based folk musician, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, whose mesmerising voice and intricate melodies have won the hearts of all who hear her.
Her songs are stories, weaving a tapestry of haunting folklore and fairy tales like a map of her heart. With courage, humour and infinite quirk she explores the realms of human seeking, love and longing.
Phoebe’s performances often soar through songs, storytelling, brief comedy routines and shadow puppetry just to keep people on their toes.
Since the launch of her crowd-funded debut double album in August 2015 (Into the Wildwood & Bird Whisperer), Phoebe and her musical partner Samuel Bear have been sharing music throughout Europe and Australia, playing in a 2-4-piece folk/roots band lineup, and spending time composing in minus-30-degree snowstorms 300km North of the Arctic Circle.
Thank you to our sponsors: Yarra Ranges Council & Community Bank Warburton and Yarra Junction.
Join us by the river in lovely Warburton on Sunday, 7th July, 11am-3pm to enjoy music, stalls with art, craft, local produce and more…
Looking back at this great video that beautifully captures The Warburton Valley Market!
We look forward to seeing you at the next Warburton Valley Market on the first Sunday of the month for live music, food, local produce, art craft and more… All along the Birrarung and beautiful Warburton!
Entertaining you at the next Warburton Valley Market on Sunday 2nd June 11am-3pm, both coming all the way from East Warburton, we have Rich Davies & Awol Monks.
Scotland-born, Australia-based RICH DAVIES delivers a ‘foot stomping contemporary folk attack’ (Mick Thomas, Weddings Parties Anything). Davies draws from his heritage and love of the old folk traditions across Mountain Music, Celtic, and even Shanty, through to 60’s Folk Revival influences.
AWOL MONKS are an acoustic duo from The Yarra Valley. The band formed in 2020 from two music loving friends who met in their teens and who just couldn’t get enough of Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley and Jimi Hendrix. Their unique brand of entertainment fuses soaring vocals and captivating rhythms with audience engagement and at times theatrical performance. Boasting a mixture of originals and unique interpretations of covers.
Enjoy delicious Indian Food, and hot chocolate and chai whilst you browse our lovely local market stalls wares.
The fabulous Mandy Connell will be returning to the Warburton Valley Market on Sunday 5th May.
You can catch her between 1&3pm!
Connell’s openness is what stands out from any performance. A forceful singer, and a competent guitar player in multiple tunings, Connell’s personality stands out and has done so in her session work, her interview series An Otherwise Quiet Room, collaborations, and of course songwriting and her captivating solo shows.
Connell is part country and part folk. Trills and affectations straight from Celtic tradition cut through songs as fresh and original as if they were written in your back yard. The Melbourne native now lives in central Victoria, with her handmade Jack Spira guitars, McDonald Mandolin and a garden. Connell’s voice, fingerstyle guitar technique, her deep folk background and her experience in the festival scene are all notable, but ultimately there’s a power in every performance which stands apart from her skills. It is Connell’s presence and ability to share which has earned her the respect of David Francey, Eric Bogle and Judy Small. A musician’s musician and a real treat to see, Connell is well worth venturing out of the house to see.
Follow The Robin is a singer/songwriter weaving stories, poetry and metaphorical images into her Folk and Indie songs.
Creating music filled with wonder, Follow The Robin transports listeners to an ethereal plane.
Performing regularly since 2020, Follow The Robin has opened for artists such as Little Green and Steve Baker and The LiveWires (in Germany) as well as doing several solo performances.
A finalist in the 2023 AFMA’s, Follow The Robin continues to create new music daily with the hopes of releasing a debut album in 2024!
Playing from 12pm, come and support this wonderful emerging artist.
Join us by the river in lovely Warburton on Sunday, 5th May, 11am-3pm to enjoy music, stalls with art, craft, local produce and more…
Sadly, due to extreme heat and high winds forecast for this Sunday 4th Feb, we have had to make the difficult decision to CANCEL the Warburton Valley Market this month.
This is never an easy decision to make and we have had to take into consideration the safety of all.
Factors we have taken into consideration are:
It does not feel safe to be putting up marquees in high winds
High winds cause marquees to be at risk of damage to people and property
Risk of exposure to high temperatures of patrons and stallholders
Fire Rating; whilst only rated high at this stage, due to Warburton’s limited exit routes, should a fire break out, safety risk is increased.
We look forward to seeing you on Sunday 3rd March in beautiful autumnal Warburton.
