About 10,000 people were at EPIC on Saturday. The four-day festival runs until Monday night.

Royalle said that during live shows she would be joined on stage by her Sloppy Joe band and Betty Grumble, a performer of ''grotesque burlesque''.

''It's my first time at the National Folk Festival - it's a really beautiful, amazing experience, particularly from a performer's perspective, and the audience is very warm and welcoming,'' she said.

''Our show is quite confronting and tackles some really big ideas and certain political philosophies, and it's really nice to have such a warm welcome, and people were really eager to talk afterwards.''

Ms Royalle said her album was a fusion of poetry and music, and the outfit would perform again on the Flute 'n' Fiddle stage at 3pm on Sunday.

Legendary Koori singer-songwriter Archie Roach drew a large crowd to fill the Budawang Pavilion at lunchtime on Saturday, while outside revellers made the most of the autumn sunshine, listening to buskers and watching dancers and puppeteers.

Em Adams, a yoga teacher and writer, and her partner Lachlan Reilly, a mathematics teacher, travelled to the festival from Central Tilba, a small town about three hours south-east of Canberra.

Ms Adams said the pair hardly ever visited Canberra, and last year they went to Central Tilba's own Easter Festival, but this year they decided to try something different.

''We go to Cobargo Folk Festival and this is enormous by comparison - it's so much fun, we've been going around checking everything out,'' she said.