GROUNDED FESTIVAL 2026
MUSIC
DANIEL AARON
Like a magpie at dawn, Daniel Aaron’s chorus may wake your soul from slumber – he’s an indie-blues and roots song man from the bush, brimming with tender reflections and contagious energy. He’s got groove tighter than the federal climate budget, rhythm raucous enough for the toilet paper aisle mid-lockdown and style harder to pin than a leaf in the wind. Centred in earnest storytelling, Daniel’s songs will have you doting on beloved people, revering the landscape, and dancing with heart.
A Triple J comp win, collaborations and mentorship from premier Aussie artists Pierce Brothers and Ash Grunwald, a stunning debut album and subsequent International Songwriting comp finalist, Daniel Aaron has cemented himself as ‘one of Australia’s finest emerging acts’.
Following the release of his debut single in 2018, Daniel bunkered down over the course of 5 years to work meticulously on a captivating debut album. With exceptional collaborations, poetic themes and stunning production Daniel Aaron’s self-titled debut album is a work of art, set to leave a lasting impact on listeners.
DANIEL AARON
LEAH SENIOR
Australian-based folk diviner Leah Senior silences audiences with vivid lyricism and a voice that soars with a disarmingly honest Sandy Denny-like clarity. Leah effortlessly weaves together spring-time baroque pop playfulness with a fragile blend of bedroom folk. Her fourth album The Music That I Make (2023, Poison City Records) reveals Leah at her most intimate, her songs a cycle of vulnerable meditations on what it means to create. The Music That I Make transports the listener to her sandstone shack in Anglesea, where autumnal British folk meets rain streaked AM radio.
Leah’s previous three albums The Passing Scene, Pretty Faces and Summer’s On The Ground were released through Flightless Records. A chance late night encounter with King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard saw Leah Senior joining their independent label Flightless. In 2022 Leah and her band joined King Gizzard on a national tour of USA/Canada, performing at iconic venues including Red Rocks and Berkeley Theatre. Leah has since returned to the USA, performing her own headline tours and also as part of Simon Joyner’s band.
Leah Senior’s captivating live performances have seen her sharing the stage with international artists including Wilco, Jessica Pratt, Bedouine and Sylvie and performing at festivals such as Levitation, Desert Daze, Port Fairy Folk Festival and Golden Plains.
LEAH SENIOR & BAND
WATTY THOMPSON
In a gloriously unabashed antipodean drawl, bush balladeer Watty Thompson explores themes of inward and outward love, togetherness, and a desire to strive and live beyond the material. It’s affirming, joyous and inspiring, all played out against a background of rollicking country flavoured Australiana folk.
Watty plied his trade for over a decade, treadin’ sticky carpets with various bands before making for the rugged coastline and the mountains of the Otway Ranges to bunker down and craft material for his dream project. As he wrote and gathered a cohort of friends around him, Thompson found he was creating something that held a new space for the listener. That space was one of love and empathy, where hard won experience could be readily shared, a space big on community, a space big on honesty, a place big on love.
Voted Music Victoria’s Regional Artist of the Year in 2023, Watty has connected with a growing number of believers through stellar showings at various festivals and sold-out performances across the country.
THE WATTY THOMPSON TRIO