Peter Thornton

“Peter Thornton was one of South Australia’s leading accordion and concertina players in the genre of Traditional Folk Music and Australian Bush Music. Peter’s passion for the Fleurieu Folk Festival and the South Coast Folk Club as Co-Founder & Manager of both were unsurpassed. He lived, breathed and spent every minute playing and encouraging his beloved music. In 2016 Pete was inducted into the Adelaide Music Collective South Australian Music Hall of Fame for his involvement in Folk Music. Although very humbled by this award he accepted it with pride and passion.”

Peter’s encouragement of young people to play Traditional music has been reiterated over and over again by local young musicians and singer songwriters who continually talk of their inspirational conversations they had with him.    [Fleurieu Folk Festival Web Site]

Peter Thornton was a member of The Rocky River Bush Band, and was a very well regarded person in the Australian folk music community.  He was involved with the Fleurieu Folk Festival in Willunga, South Australia, as well as the South Coast Folk Club in Port Noarlunga, South Australia.

The Fleurieu Folk Festival established the Peter Thornton Memorial Award.

[Editor’s Note 18 Feb 2024:  Peter Thornton’s Facebook profile does not reflect his passing; there is a “memorialization” process that can be activated.  Also, some of the links on his profile lead to malware sites, so they should not be followed – do a separate search engine search for them and follow those links, instead.]