Billy Bragg headlines Port Fairy Folk Festival

"When I play in Melbourne on Wednesday the tickets people bring will have a date on it of 2020," he told The Standard on Sunday.

"It just so happened the third time around coincided with WOMADelaide - an annual world music festival held in Adelaide - so I played that on Friday then they kept me in Adelaide for a few days for a few more shows, then of course, Port Fairy was the next weekend."

On Saturday Bragg, along with his pianist Niall Anderson, drove from Adelaide to Port Fairy. The two visited The Big Lobster sculpture in Kingston in South Australia and the Umpherston Sinkhole gardens in Mount Gambier.

"It was lovely because eventually we ended up on, not even a two-lane road, just a single tarmac road and there were black wallabies feeding on the side of the road," Bragg said.

"I don't usually get to see marsupials from the car. The thing is, in my job we're flying everywhere because it's city to city.

"Unless I'm at a festival like this, I rarely see outside the cites, so it was great yesterday to be able to do that."

Bragg played two different sets of songs spanning his four decade career across his shows on Sunday evening and Monday morning.

The musician said he walked around the town on Sunday to "get a vibe" of the area in preparation for the shows.

"A festival for us is a bit like a busk, you've got to deal with the conditions. When you turn up it might be raining all day, or it might be sunny all day and everyone's baked," Bragg said.

"The person before you might have just slayed them all and they're (the crowds) really up.

"You have to suss it out when you get there, the sound might not be what you're used to. You just deal with it.

"It's hard for me to tell you what it's going to be like up there, but whatever it's going to be like I'll just deal with it and give it my best shot and hopefully connect with people."

His visit to Australia wasn't just about the music, but his activism as well, joining a protest with the United Workers Union in South Australia on International Women's Day, with workers allegedly being underpaid for their work on picking broccolini.

Another musician who played at the festival for the first time this year was Boureima "Vieux" Farka Toure from Mali. Vieux said it felt good performing to a packed tent. "It's the last concert for the tour so it's feeling really good," he said.

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