A young Sam De Santi at the Illawarra Folk Festival in 2004. Photo: Graeme Morrison.
Sam De Santi knows the Illawarra Folk Festival all too well — he grew up in it, learned his first instrument in its wings, and now returns as one of Australia’s most in-demand folk musicians.
Decades after toddling around Bulli Showground with a fiddle in hand, he’s set to hit the 39th festival from 16-18 January with not one but two powerhouse bands — and a whole lot more experience behind him.
Sam’s musician father David took on the role of festival director in May 1996, and Sam was born in December the same year.
David has been heavily involved ever since, so young Sam spent a lot of his early life around folk music and the Illawarra Folk Festival.
By age two Sam could play the fiddle, and when he was eight he became part of folk festival regulars Wongawilli, alongside his father on accordion, mother Tania on piano, aunt Jane Brownlee on fiddle and other talented Illawarra musicians.
“Obviously my dad has been a major influence on my love of folk music, but also my mum Tania and her sister Jane,” Sam said.
He also performed at the festival with the Con Artists from the Wollongong Conservatorium of Music, where he learned to play the trombone.
Three generations of De Santis – Sam, David and David’s father Aniello (Andy) – also formed a trio to perform traditional Italian folk songs at Italian lunches that were a feature of the festival’s Friday program for a number of years.
Those shows hold precious memories for Sam, after his grandfather passed away in 2020.
While Sam grew up in the Illawarra and spent time in Britain, he now lives in Brisbane and works as an acoustics engineer providing advice on soundproofing buildings against traffic, mechanical and stadium crowd noise, with the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games keeping him busy.
In 2023, he formed the band Amaidi, playing banjo alongside guitarist and vocalist Lachlan Baldwin, accordion and stomp box player Jack Meimaris and fiddle player Davydd McDonald.
Amaidi (from left): Jack Meimaris, Davydd McDonald, Lachlan Baldin and Sam De Santi. Photo: Supplied.
“When we started talking about forming a band I had to work out what instrument I could play that would fit in with what the other guys were already doing,” Sam said.
“They already had guitar, accordion and fiddle covered, so I went with banjo, which has the same tuning as the fiddle.”
In the two years since forming, Amaidi has become one of the hottest folk bands in the country, playing everything from Woodford to the National Folk Festival in Canberra, and the National Celtic Folk Festival at Portarlington in Victoria.
“It’s been ridiculous really … Woodford twice, Portarlington twice …,” Sam said.
The 2026 Illawarra Folk Festival will also be second time around for Amaidi, as the band played one of its early festival gigs at Bulli in 2024.
Sam promises a different show this January.
“We’ll be louder, faster and play much harder than we did in 2024,” he said.
“We play together so much, and now we have momentum – it’s like there is no off switch.”
When he’s not on stage with Amaidi at the Illawarra Folk Festival, Sam will play guitar with another Brisbane band, Lizzie Flynn and the Runaway Trains.
He’ll also pull out his fiddle for the Fiddle Frenzy – a fiddle-centric concert featuring nine of the best fiddle players at the festival, scheduled for the Slacky Flat Bar on the Saturday afternoon program.
“The last time they had a Fiddle Frenzy it was in the Restaurant Bar, a small venue, and they had to turn lots of people away,” he said.
“This time it will be on a big stage, which will be great, so we can fit everyone.”
Book tickets for the Illawarra Folk Festival from 16-18 January at the Bulli Showgrounds and view the full festival line-up.
