Folk Alliance International 2025 Four Artists Not to Miss

Founded in 1989, Folk Alliance International (FAI) is a nonprofit dedicated to sustaining and fostering the folk genre and its global community. Based in Kansas City, Missouri, FAI hosts an annual conference where artists, industry professionals and fans gather to celebrate the music’s diversity.

FAI’s 2025 conference will take place in Montréal, Québec, Canada, from February 19-23, where in addition to educational panels, workshops, mentor sessions, and an awards ceremony—Indigo Girls and Lesley Riddle are among the lifetime achievement honorees—there will, of course, be lots of live music.

From thousands of applicants, fewer than two hundred Official Showcase Artists—representing the many different styles of folk, including world, old-timey, Americana, hip-hop, and bluegrass—were selected to perform on the conference’s largest stages.

Here are four artists we’re looking forward to see.

Kaïa Kater

Grenadian-Canadian Kaïa Kater grew up in the artsy Mile End neighborhood in Montreal and attended college in West Virginia on a banjo scholarship. The singer-songwriter pulls threads from these diverse experiences and weaves them into her unique storytelling.

The Faux Paws

This bi-coastal trio features a set of brothers—Andrew (guitar) and Noah (fiddle, mandolin) VanNorstrand—who grew up playing contra dance music with their musician mother in upstate New York. Third member Chris Miller adds banjo but also, surprisingly, saxophone, which adds unexpected angles and grooves to Faux Paws’ music.

Maryna Krut (KRUTЬ)

Maryna Krut began playing the bandura, the traditional plucked-string instrument of her native Ukraine, when she was seven years old. Having mastered the instrument, Krut also mixes in unconventional elements to create the foundation upon which her evocative vocals dance.

El Pony Pisador

The Catalan group is seen wearing rubber bird masks in their promo photos, but don’t mistake that sense of whimsy for any sort of musical irreverence. El Pony Pisador from Barcelona injects flair into its style of Irish shanty folk but also stays true to its more traditional elements.