The Maes 
with special guests Midnight Chicken

The Maes are celebrating the release of their fourth studio album, ‘Abreast’, with a national headline tour encompassing their favourite cities and small towns in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia! Already in 2025 so far they have toured the UK opening for Grace Petrie and played the Shetland and Orkney Folk Festivals. They celebrated the album’s release day with a sold-out folk-festival-style event, ‘Abreastival’ in their home town of Castlemaine, Central Victoria. The band's previous albums, 2019's self-titled record and 2017's Take Care, Take Cover won the Music Victoria, Folk/Roots Album of the Year among a host of other accolades.

The Maes bring modern folk to life with lush harmonies and acoustic mastery on guitar, mandolin, fiddle and banjo. Born in Central Victoria, the sisters grew up immersed in a melting pot of music from around the world washed up on stolen land. The Maes are outstanding live, with engaging storytelling and spine-tingling harmonies. The sisters draw their audience in like your sweetest and scariest friend. With echoes of Gillian Welch and The Waifs, there is a timeless luminescence and simplicity to the songwriting and sound of Maggie and Elsie Rigby.

As well as selling out headline shows around the country and overseas, their international festival appearances include the Telluride Bluegrass Festival (USA) Edmonton Folk Festival (Canada) Orkney Folk Festival (UK) and Woodford Folk Festival (Aus).

‘The Maes folk/pop sensibility is alluring. I'm a sucker for harmonies and these girls cover this ground with such bluegrass perfection, it makes me realise so many styles of our music grow from the same old tree - we are merely branches away from each other.’ – Troy Cassar-Daley

I’ve always had such love for The Maes! Their timeless sound is always sung with such sincerity and emotion straight from the heart. – Josh Teskey

Doors open 7.30pm