Folk Album Of The Year Award
2025
Pictured: The Longest Johns at New Century Hall for Manchester Folk Festival 2025, Photo credit: Mark Lear
The Folk Album Of The Year Award has been launched to celebrate the most artistically acclaimed folk, roots and acoustic albums in Britain and Ireland.
The Award will spotlight eight shortlisted albums released in 2025, with the overall winner unveiled at an inaugural ceremony featuring live performances from nominated artists. The event will take place at Rochdale Town Hall on Tuesday 17 March 2026 and will be available to live stream.
The Folk Album of the Year Award aims to showcase the breadth and diversity of the genre's community across Britain and 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 Friday 31st October 2025.
The price to apply is £60 (£50+VAT). This project is managed by Sound Roots - a registered charity. All income is directly linked to running the project and supporting the event.
Please read through the full list of our Terms and Conditions by clicking HERE.
For a list of Frequently Asked Questions please click HERE.
The Folk Album of the Year Award will highlight eight albums, chosen by a jury of performers, promoters, journalists and broadcasters chaired by celebrated English folk singer-songwriter and Executive Producer of BBC Radio 2’s ‘The Folk Show’, Kellie While.
The shortlisted albums will represent the most creative work by artists who are furthering, contributing to and celebrating contemporary and traditional folk, roots and acoustic music. It will culminate in an event - livestreamed from Rochdale Town Hall - at which nominated artists will perform and the overall winner of the title Album of the Year will be announced.
Meet the 2025 jury members HERE.
The shortlist will be revealed in November.
Rochdale Town Hall
Application Guidelines
Please note, albums must meet all criteria to be considered eligible for the award.
Folk, roots and acoustic albums from the British Isles and Ireland are eligible for the Folk Album of the Year Award.
Albums only qualify for entry.
What constitutes an album? An album is 5 or more tracks OR more than 25 minutes in length.
Compilation albums and EPs under 25 minutes in length are not eligible.
For soundtrack albums, at least 65% of the album’s running time must be an original score or new recordings.
The album must have a digital release date between Wednesday January 1st 2025 and Wednesday December 31st 2025.
The album must, as a minimum, be available to buy from at least two selected major digital download retailers and/or to stream from at least two selected streaming services (please see cl. 4 of the full Terms & Conditions for the list of selected digital download retailers and streaming services).
Entries can only be made by the person or company owning or controlling the recordings, or by a person authorised by the artist or company owning or controlling the recordings on the submitted album i.e. the self-releasing artists or their record company.
The record company, artist or artist representative submitting an entry must obtain all of the relevant permission(s) and clearance(s) for Sound Roots and Folk on Foot to use the album cover artwork, artist/band photograph and tracks from any shortlisted album for promotional purposes in connection with the Folk Album of the Year Award.
The record company, artist or artist representative submitting an entry must obtain the relevant permission(s) and clearance(s) for Sound Roots and Folk on Foot to use one artist/band promo video and any audio tracks from the nominated album for promotional purposes on the award website, at the Folk Album of the Year Launch Event and Awards Show and on their social media channels and digital platforms.
Entries must be received by the deadline of Friday 31st October 2025. Entries received after 31st October 2025 will not be considered for the award.
Kellie While, chair of the selection jury
Please read through the full list of our Terms and Conditions by clicking HERE.
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 showcased in its own special episode of Folk on Foot in December 2025.
The Award is supported by Rochdale Development Agency and forms a key part of Rochdale’s 2026 Town of Culture celebrations.
The Award also complements the Sound Roots-commissioned Official Folk Albums Chart, which was launched in 2020 in collaboration with the Official Charts Company and provides monthly charts highlighting around 120 new folk releases each year.
David Agnew, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of Sound Roots, said:
“This Award is about celebrating the sheer breadth of creativity and artistic innovation in folk music today. We want to spotlight work that might otherwise go unheard, bringing brilliant new music to the widest possible audiences.”
Matthew Bannister, founder and host of Folk on Foot, commented:
“While the Official Folk Albums Chart highlights the most popular artists, this Award goes deeper – seeking out the extraordinary, the innovative, and the inspiring. Whether you’ve topped the chart or sold just a handful of copies, if you’ve made a remarkable album, we want to hear from you.”
Submit your application by clicking here.
Submission deadline — 23:59 on Sunday 31st October 2025.
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