Coffs Harbour - Bellingen • 30 October / 1 November 2026
Taranta Festival Lineup 2026
Get ready to meet the heartbeat of Taranta Festival. Our 2025 lineup featured world-class artists who bring the colours, sounds, and stories of their cultures to Bellingen. From high-energy dance bands and dazzling instrumentalists to powerful poets and soulful ensembles, these performers will light up the stage and create unforgettable moments of music, dance, and community.
Ars Nova Napoli is a vibrant street-band and Nu Folk ensemble from Southern Italy. Formed in 2009, they blend traditional Neapolitan melodies and Mediterranean folk with fresh, high-energy compositions. Using traditional instruments like mandolins, accordions, and frame drums, their lively shows capture the spirit of an outdoor Italian festival.
Alessandro Santacaterina is an acclaimed Calabrian guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer. He is widely recognised by critics as one of the leading virtuosos of the chitarra battente (a traditional 5-course Southern Italian guitar). Santacaterina's signature style blends traditional 17th-century repertoire and Calabrian ethnic music with contemporary experimentation, improvisation, and live electronic music.
Sinfonia is Bellingen Youth Orchestra’s most advanced ensemble. Hosting the leading string players, Sinfonia provides opportunities to take on challenging repertoire in an innovative musical experience. For the Taranta Festiva the ensemble will present a special program, accompanying selected visiting artists and taking the audience through an incredible musical journey!
Prepare to be enveloped by sound as The Bellingen Singers take the stage. With over 60 members, this vibrant Gumbaynggirr-country phenomenon is a testament to the joy of collective singing. Guided by community musician Hayley Egan, the choir operates on a model of radical inclusion, learning complex, multi-part harmonies entirely by ear without a single piece of sheet music. Known for their moving contributions to local social activism and immersive cultural installations, their repertoire spans poignant original works, global folk traditions, and soaring, resonant hymns. Rich, raw, and deeply moving, The Bellingen Singers deliver a powerful celebration of human connection that will leave your heart full and your spirit lifted.
Ciccio Nucera, the "king” of the Calabrese tarantella! The style in teaching traditional dances and the tambourine and accordion techniques make him an almost unique character capable of transmitting all his energy especially on stage. “The tarantella is addictive”: this is his famous motto that has been shared over time by all his fans.
Diego Jascalevich is an internationally acclaimed Argentine charango virtuoso, guitarist, and composer. Born in Buenos Aires, his musical journey took him through Brazil and Italy before he settled in Germany in 1995, where he studied classical guitar and composition at the Kassel Music Academy.Jascalevich is widely celebrated for revolutionising the traditional South American charango. By blending its vibrant Andean roots with classical music, jazz, and contemporary world folk, he has elevated the ten-stringed instrument onto the global concert stage. Over a prolific career, he has collaborated with diverse international ensembles and global icons, including recording with opera legend Andrea Bocelli. Known for his technical mastery and expressive phrasing, Jascalevich delivers deeply emotive performances that bridge cultural boundaries and redefine modern folklore.
Farhan Shah is widely regarded as one of Australia's leading South Asian vocalists. Dubbed the "Pakistani Pavarotti," he is celebrated for his powerful interpretations of Sufi and Qawwali music—one of the world's most spiritually rich musical traditions. Since arriving in Adelaide from Karachi, Pakistan, in 2016, Farhan has collaborated extensively with leading Australian artists and producers. A recipient of the MusicSA UNESCO City of Music Award and the Governor's Multicultural Award, he has toured nationally and internationally as a solo artist, with his tradtional Brothers Qawwali group, and with his contemporary world music ensemble Farhan Shah & Sufi Oz.
Ginkgobiloba is an Argentinian power folk rock trio formed in 2001 in the city of Santa Fe. The band consists of Emiliano M. Beltzer (bass and vocals), Demian Pozzo (guitar and vocals), and Jorge E. Mockert (drums and vocals). Their unique sound blends 1970s classic rock, 1990s Seattle grunge (reminiscent of Soundgarden), heavy funk (similar to Living Colour), and traditional Latin American rhythms. This is their first time in Australia!
Hyperbaroq is Mirko Guerrini, Ilaria Crociani and Stephen Magnusson. It began six years ago, on a rainy night during lockdown. Mirko and Ilaria sat at the piano and played "No, no, non si speri", a cantata Giacomo Carissimi wrote around 1664. Something became irreversible. The Baroque principle of the affetti, music as the direct, uninhibited expression of feeling, was never a closed system. It was an invitation. They understood what that invitation was asking: not to revive this music, not to interpret it, but to continue it. Bringing their own sound to it, loops, samples, electronic textures, felt at first like touching something sacred with irreverent hands. They created a conversation that has never broken off, one that asks not for answers, but for the courage to keep searching. Always in motion, never in amber. This is the baroque they imagine.
Three masters of the traditional folk music of regional Greece, Turkey, and the Balkans come together to create Trio Petra. Paddy Montgomery, Paul Dounias and Byron Triandafyllidis have spent many years studying these genres on their respective instruments, gathering songs and stories along the way. With a heavy focus on dance music, the trio performs a range of regional folk music in a tasteful and authentic manner. Their love of all Mediterranean and Middle Eastern musical idioms is the driving force behind the sound.
Born from a hunger to share ancestral sounds in a new land, Santa Taranta burst onto the Australian music scene in 2013 bringing the infectious rhythms of southern Italy's folk revival to Melbourne. After conquering festival stages across Australia from the National Folk Festival to Fairbridge and beyond the band eventually found their homebase in Bellingen, where they continue to evolve their distinctive sound. The dynamic core trio of Salvatore, vocalist Hayley Egan, and Argentinian bassist Emiliano Beltzer forms the heart of the band, but the stage will be filled with a larger ensemble to present their latest album supported by the Australia Council for the Arts. Be ready, you can't miss this one!
Bellingen Playback Theatre Company is a dynamic, unscripted ensemble that brings community stories to life. Using the unique art form of Playback Theatre, the company invites audience members to share real-life experiences, which are instantly transformed into compelling theatre through music, movement, and words. Deeply rooted in the Bellingen Shire, they create intimate, transformative spaces where personal moments become universal connections. From joyous celebrations to quiet reflections, this versatile group honors the diverse fabric of human experience with empathy, creativity, and spontaneous magic.
Shake Shake Theatre is a whimsical, independent puppet company founded by Australian artist Jessica Nicholls and Swiss artist Pierre Filliez. After training at the prestigious Jacques Lecoq School in Paris, the duo united to create highly visual, physical stories for families. Lovingly hand-crafted entirely from recycled and sustainable materials, their shows combine puppetry, shadow theatre, and live music. From giant pop-up books to magic spilling out of vintage suitcases, Shake Shake Theatre transforms everyday objects into enchanting worlds that inspire a deep love for nature, storytelling, and imagination.