Geraldton’s alt-soul singer songwriter Alexia Parenzee set to perform at Fairbridge Festival in Pinjarra

After a recent EP launch, Geraldton’s own Alexia Parenzee is making her way to two of the State’s most prestigious folk music celebrations — the Nannup Music Festival and Fairbridge Festival. After successfully launching her debut EP Retrospect to hundreds of supporters across her hometown, Parenzee is set to grace stages in Nannup (March 1-4) and Pinjarra (April 5-7) for the four and three-day music festivals. Parenzee said so far this year had been all go and she couldn’t wait to be performing on stage again. “What a year it’s been already,” she said. “Fairbridge Festival has been one of those ‘dream festivals’ I’ve always hoped to be billed on. “It’s one of the coolest world/folk music festivals in Australia and highly competitive to get selected. I was certainly knocked back a few years in a row before being successful to play this year.” Parenzee returned from a near-sold out tour with award-winning songbird Kim Churchill just as Retrospect was released to streaming services earlier this month. Her sound is largely inspired by her surroundings, her cultural roots in South Africa and her life on the road. She said the album was a compilation of stories gathered from travelling around the world, which had been reworked with a band over the past two years. “I can’t believe the moment has finally come. I feel very lucky, but also acknowledge that all of this hard work behind the scenes is starting to pay off with incredible opportunities like this one,” Parenzee said. “This album, it’s just real, it’s soulful and it’s deep, and it’s also fun, and it’s a little bit hippy. It’s all of the facets of myself. “We just want to have a good time and want people to have a boogie and celebrate such a joyous thing in our region.” Her unique blend of alt-soul, quirky finger-picking guitar work and earthly melodies will be performed alongside No Port Left band members Rhyce Elliott, Rickie Glegg, Elias Harun and James Softly at Nannup, while she performs solo at Fairbridge Festival. The family friendly Nannup Music Festival highlights the best in new, emerging and Indigenous music and aims to connect and strengthen the community through music and the arts. Fairbridge Festival is one of the State’s most prestigious family friendly folk, world and roots music celebrations and offers a diverse line-up of local, regional and travelling artists with various genres. For all ticketing information for Fairbridge Festival, visit fairbridgefestival.com.au/ticket-options. For Nannup Music Festival tickets or for more information, visit nannupmusicfestival.org/tickets.