Organisers say this year's line-up, the 34th, is another international affair.
Harpist Patsy Seddon has come all the way from Scotland, while Spanish native, and longtime Dunedin resident Carmen Aliberch, and Irishman Pat Higgins, now living in Wellington, are among other northern hemisphere flavourings.
Women in Docs lead the charge from our Western Island (Australia), described on the pair's website as a "folk-crossover-country alternative act".
They have been compared with the Indigo Girls.
Whare Flat stalwart Mike Moroney says a lot has changed over the festival's time.
"The original gatherings in the '70s were called folk camps and were just a bunch of friends that got together to play music among themselves for a weekend.
"It wasn't long before it became more formalised with national and international guests attending, starting out with luminaries like [Scottish folk singer] Eric Bogle."
Mr Moroney says the large contingent of international performers this year is a highlight, including Seddon, Davy Stuart (multi-intstrumentalist and instrument maker from Edinburgh, now resident in Christchurch) and multiple Tui award winner Bob McNeill, an expat Glaswegian.
"Apart from their own individual performances and workshops, they will come together with other Celts to celebrate the Scottish new year at 11am New Year's Day [00:00GMT] with a variety concert. Women in Docs from Australia are a major coup for us. They are very big in the United States having supported the Indigo Girls on their last tour of the States."
With the festival only a couple of weeks away, Mike Moroney says next year's event is on the radar, but he says there's nothing formalised yet.
"Planning might be overstating it. We have many expressions of interest already."
There are daily opportunities for allcomers to strut their stuff at the festival.
"We call them 'blackboard concerts'. Yes, they run daily, and we pick up hidden talents from there for the 'Festival Picks' concert on the last day. It's amazing what spills out from around the campsite."
Mr Moroney says the ethos of the festival is one of including people.
"The Whare Flat Folk Festival, like most New Zealand folk festivals, is very inclusive. We don't have an 'us and them' mentality about guest artists, and the artists in turn embrace that.
"The festival programme forms the framework for the event but most of the `real' music happens in sessions, around the campfire, and one on one in people's campsites and cabins."
"A simple stroll around the site will reveal any amount of musical collaboration going on, and the stranger is always welcome to hang around and enjoy, or join in. All events are under cover and the weather is of little account. Day visitors are most welcome."
Full details are available on the website: www.whareflat.co.nz
• If you really can't wait until December 31 to see live music, tonight Sammy's hosts a Reggae Christmas, with; Kakiroa, Jah Red, Jungle Fari, Rain Man, Ak, and MC Winston Smith.
• Over at Arc Café a father and son two piece, Grandad's Wedding, release their debut CD.
Grandad's Wedding are Glenn Bathgate on guitar and vocals, with his son Billy on drums.
Others on the bill include Freddy Fudd Pucker, Pinedale Peasant, and the Chernobyl Kid.
The show is probably the last before Christmas, as it's on Christmas Eve, December 24.
- Darryl Baser
