What: MoonFace the Mage @ Bottles Wine Bar & Merchants
When:
Worcester Music Festival – a metropolitan festival supporting emerging artists and raising money for charity – returns from 12th to 14th September, 2025.
The festival takes place in more than 20 venues in Worcester City Centre, hosting around 250 bands over 3 days as well as a number of workshops.
A non-profit making event, it is run by an enthusiastic team of volunteers who all give their time for free to support live music, encourage new audiences to visit new venues and help to make live music accessible to more people.
With live music across the city, from pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes to historic buildings, record shops, on the streets and even in breweries, the festival is absolutely FREE to attend. Our team of promoters put on hundreds of gigs, showcasing some of the best, new and emerging artists in the UK.
The festival also delivers free music-related workshops for the whole community. Adults and children can take part in everything from drum clinics and Q&As with industry experts to learning an instrument or singing in a pop choir. Amateur photographers of any age or experience can also enter the annual photography competition.
Almost £74,000 has been raised for charity by the festival in its eleven year history and the 2024 charity was Hereford & Worcester MND Association.
MoonFace the Mage are a folk-rock duo from South Wales. Made up of Rhod Welsh (vocals, guitar) and James Morgan (bass, cajón), the project draws inspiration from folk, blues and indie-rock with a fantasy laced narrative to create a truly unique alt-folk sound.
Originally created by Rhod in the early 2000s as a solo project, MoonFace the Mage evolved into a collaborative force when longtime friend and producer James Morgan stepped out from behind the sound desk to join the performing lineup. Together, creating a dynamic mix of sounds combining ambient fingerpicking, dirty blues riffs, cajón-driven grooves, moody basslines and storytelling steeped in folklore, existentialism, and longing.
Recent Work:
In 2024, MoonFace the Mage released the album Astoria, to the Sea! — a poetic journey through “godless things and mountain kings,” recorded in collaboration with Morgan, who now anchors the duo’s live and studio sound. The album marked a return from a long hiatus, re-establishing the project as a live act and bringing its bardic energy to new audiences.
