Kerrville’s 2025 Grassy Hill New Folk Competition For Emerging Songwriters
entry window
January 7 – March 7, 2025
24 Finalists will be Announced April 17, 2025
Finalist Concerts – May 24 & 25, 2025
Winners Concert – May 31, 2025
**All concerts will be streamed live on the KFF.org WEBSITE, KFFF YOUTUBE, & KFF FACEBOOK**
2025 OFFICIAL RULES
The Kerrville Folk Festival Foundation, and the Community who attend our festivals, support and encourage diversity, equity, gender parity, and inclusion of all cultures and races and religions. Our GRASSY HILL NEW FOLK COMPETITION FOR EMERGING SONGWRITERS – a major song contest that is a career-builder for New Folk Finalists and Winners – honors these values. We welcome your original songs in any genre, culture and language.
How will the New Folk contest evaluate your songs? Our judges seek outstanding songcraft and compelling performance. We want original songs that make us shiver and say, “Awww, I wish I’d written that!” We crave clear-sounding lyrics, originality that doesn’t need overproduction, and music that makes our hearts fly away. KFF Poet Laureate Charles John Quarto says, ”A song is a tiny play that’s going on before your very ears.” New Folk rewards songs that inspire listeners from “curtain going up” to “curtain going down.”
Contest Timeline
- Contest opens for submissions on January 7, 2025.
- Deadline for completed entries is 11:59pm (Central) March 7, 2025.
- 24 New Folk Finalists are announced around April 17, 2025.
- The Finalists compete at the festival May 24 and 25, 2025.
- 6 New Folk Winners are announced May 25, 2024.
- The 6 New Folk Winners each play 20-minute sets at the festival May 31, 2025.
Entry Rules
1. You may enter from January 7 to 11:59pm (Central) March 7, 2025. Online at www.kerrvillefolkfestival.org/newfolk, click “Submit Entry” below and complete the form and pay the $55 entry fee plus the processing fee.
2. Send us .mp3 audio recordings (no video) of two of your original songs. You must perform each song yourself. On each song’s recording, do not say your name, nor the song’s title, nor any other intro. Just record the song itself.
3. We invite all genres of songs. We welcome music-with-singing, acapella, music-with-spoken word, lyric in any language, and co-writes. Please note: while we believe instrumentals are “songs”, we do not accept instrumentals in this competition.
4. You can record by any method, from mobile phone to full studio production. [Suggestion: at the Finalist competition (see Rule 9), Finalists must perform their two songs solo or with just one side person (duos get no side person). It may be to your advantage to submit recordings that sound as simple as the way you would perform if you are selected as a Finalist.]
5. Do not submit lyric sheets UNLESS your song is not in English. If your song is in English, please do not submit lyric sheets.
6. On your recordings, SING YOUR LYRICS CLEARLY. We’ll judge by ear with no lyric sheets, so we need to hear each word you sing. [Suggestion: This is another reason to submit a simple recording – so your lyrics aren’t “drowned out by the band.”]
7. You may enter the New Folk contest multiple times in a single year: submit two songs with each entry fee. (Please do not submit a particular song more than once per year.) If you enter multiple times, and if more than one entry qualifies as a Finalist, your best-scoring entry (and its two songs) will count you as a single Finalist.
8. You keep all rights to your songs, except the Festival may record and live-stream the Finalist competition May 24 and 25, 2025. You must have the permission of your co-writers to record and live-stream your two songs. If you are a Finalist, and you want a video clip or recording of your performance at that show, we’ll give you one to use as you choose.
9. FINALISTS. On or around April 17, the festival announces 24 entrants as New Folk Finalists. On May 24 and 25, 2025, these Finalists compete by singing their two songs live at the festival: each solo artist performs solo or with one additional person; and duos perform together with no additional people. If a performer can play multiple instruments at the same time, that’s fine. No performance may include recorded sound or live-played “loops.”
10. WINNERS. At the Finalist competition, New Folk judges (different from previous judging levels) select 6 NEW FOLK WINNERS. These WINNERS each perform a 20-minute set of their original songs at the festival on Saturday, May 31, 2025.
11. FINALIST PRIZES. Each New Folk Finalist gets to attend the 2025 Kerrville Folk Festival for all 18-days with a guest. Admission will be granted through an 18-day wristband plus a wristband for a guest to the 2025 Kerrville Folk Festival; wristbands are non-transferable. Each New Folk Finalist is also invited to camp in the campground and attend all stage shows. At our long-established New Folk camp (upon request, we’ll provide you with a loaner tent, sleeping bag and pillow) you can camp with fellow Finalists in a friendly, creative, sing-around-the-campfire setting. You can eat at our Staff Kitchen. You’ll get a souvenir cup and drink tickets. You can participate in the Festival’s Songwriter School at half price. Discounts are available to attend the Southwest Regional Folk Alliance convention. In Kerrville Folk Festival’s grand 54-year tradition, you’ll truly experience the Festival’s “Welcome Home!” hospitality.
12. WINNER PRIZES. Each New Folk WINNER receives $750 cash, two wristbands to our 2025 fall “Welcome Home” Fest, and an invitation to perform in the 2025 Grassy Hill New Folk Winners House Concert Tour in Texas.
13. ENTRY EXCEPTIONS. You may not enter if you are a prior New Folk Winner, or if you are booked as a 2025 Kerrville Folk Festival performer. Finalists forfeit their entry if they appear onstage at the festival May 22 – 25 (except at the Finalist competition May 24 and 25).
Frequently Asked Questions
Album cuts, band recordings, solo or live recordings – they’re all permitted. Your best strategy is to submit a recording that sounds the way you’d perform it live at the festival if you get selected as a Finalist – in other words, solo or with just one side person. Keep in mind that your songs will be judged without lyric sheets, so SING YOUR LYRICS CLEARLY.
Yes. 2022 New Folk Winner Javier Jara sang both of his songs in Spanish. If your lyrics are not in English, and if you are selected as a Finalist, you may be asked to provide lyric sheets in the original language and also in English translation.
Yes, co-writes are allowed. Your co-writer does not need to appear at the Festival unless you entered as a duo. The person who submits the co-written song and performs it live at the Festival, is the one who is eligible for Finalist and Winner recognition and prizes.
Yes, with parental permission. If you are selected as a Finalist, you will be asked to provide written permission from your parent or guardian, in order to attend.
No. Your songs can be as short or as long as you like.
No. You can submit any original song, regardless of when you wrote it.
No. You must submit a .mp3 file recording.
The New Folk entry deadline is 11:59pm (Central Time) Sunday, March 7, 2025. If your entry isn’t fully complete by that deadline, you’ll be disqualified and refunded. [Note: New Folk receives an avalanche of entries in the last three days of the contest, so New Folk judges have WEARY EARS listening to those last-minute songs. You will get our fullest attention, and our best reception, if you submit your entry well before the deadline.]
Technically, yes. New Folk judges do change from year to year, and it’s possible (though, of course, no guarantee) that your songs may be better received by this year’s judges.
The New Folk judges will score each contestant’s entry according to how both songs impress them. If you enter a song twice, then the judges, who listen to hundreds of entries, may get confused – “Haven’t I already heard this?” – and they may judge it differently the second time. We’ve decided, for the sake of the judges and for you, that you must submit two new songs in each entry.
Maybe you tried to upload a file in a format other than .mp3. Maybe you are trying to submit an additional entry using an email address that has already been used to enter this year’s contest. Maybe you submitted a song that is already in another entry you made this year (see the prior question, about entering the same song twice). Maybe you forgot to pay the entry fee. Maybe you entered more or fewer than two songs. In any case, you can get clarification by calling the KFF Foundation Office (830.257.3600) or emailing newfolk@kerrvillefolkfestival.org.
We use a two-tiered review system to evaluate New Folk entries. At Level One, two groups of judges – all of them seasoned songwriters and likely former New Folk Winners – listen to, and evaluate, ALL the New Folk songs. [That’s a huge job: New Folk may receive 1000 entries, two songs apiece.] Our Level One evaluation identifies the best 120 New Folk entrants. Then, at Level Two, eight other judges rate those 120 entrants’ 240 songs. Level One’s evaluations and Level Two’s evaluations, combined, identify New Folk’s top 24 entries – these are the New Folk Finalists.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to provide feedback on your songs due to the sheer volume of entries. Additionally, the Festival maintains strict confidentiality about the details of the actual screening, listening and scoring. On occasion, a screener or listener wants to reach out to a specific songwriter and we facilitate that introduction.
By or around April 9, we’ll identify the top 24 New Folk entrants, plus several alternates. In the subsequent four days, we’ll email and call each Finalist with an invitation to perform your two songs onsite at the New Folk Finalist Competition May 24 and 25. If you can’t come, we’ll invite the next alternate. We’ll announce the 2024 New Folk Finalists to the public on or about April 17, 2025.
You will furnish your own transportation to the Festival, except we offer free rides to and from the San Antonio airport. See our Entry Rule #11, which explains your food-and-lodging accommodations at the Festival and your perks as a Finalist.
Yes. All Finalists are permitted to attend the entire 18-day Festival and, as a courtesy, may bring a guest. Admission to the Festival will be granted by providing a VIP wristband to the Finalist and one guest of the Finalist. Wristbands are non-transferable and cannot be sold or given to any third party.
Finalists must not appear as a billed or non-billed performer on any Kerrville Folk Festival stage May 22 – 25 (except your performance at the Finalist competition May 24 and 25). However, after the Finalist competition ends (May 25, 5pm), you are welcome to join your friend onstage anytime for the rest of the Festival.
No restrictions. You can invite anyone to accompany you at the Finalist competition.
Yes. In the Finalist competition, you must perform those two songs. If you are selected as a Winner, you are welcome, but not obligated, to repeat your winning songs in your 20-minute set in the Winners Concert (Saturday, May 31, 2025).
Yes, you both must appear. And you are not permitted to add a sideperson.
The entries are tied to a unique email address. If you want to enter with a different name or configuration than your first entry, you will need to use a different email address for that entry.
Email your questions to newfolk@kerrvillefolkfestival.org