List of folk festivals
A folk festival celebrates traditional folk crafts and folk music. This list includes folk festivals worldwide, except those with only a partial focus on folk music or arts. Folk festivals may also feature folk dance or ethnic foods.
![](../I/Inuit_dance_near_Nome_1900.jpg.webp)
Handicrafting has long been exhibited at such events and festival-like gatherings, as it has its roots in the rural crafts. Like folk art, handicraft output often has cultural, political, and/or religious significance. Folk art encompasses art produced from an indigenous culture or by peasants or other laboring tradespeople. In contrast to fine art, folk art is primarily utilitarian and decorative rather than purely aesthetic, and is often sold at festivals by tradespeople or practicing amateurs.[1] As at folk festivals, such art and handicraft may also appear at historical reenactments and events such as Renaissance fairs.
Europe
![](../I/Europeade_2015_dans_04.jpg.webp)
- Europeade (held each year in a different European country)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
see Volksfest
Ireland
Lithuania
![](../I/Rome_(band).JPG.webp)
Netherlands
Russia
Spain
![](../I/Tranditional_asturian_dancers.jpg.webp)
United Kingdom
- Beverley Folk Festival
- Cambridge Folk Festival
- Celtic Connections
- England's Medieval Festival[5]
- Edinburgh Folk Festival
- Fairport's Cropredy Convention
- FolkEast Festival[6]
- The Green Man Festival
- Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival
- Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival
- Shetland Folk Festival
- Shrewsbury Folk Festival
- Sidmouth Folk Festival
- Soma Festival
- Wickham Festival
- Wimborne Folk Festival
North America
Canada
- Calgary Folk Music Festival
- Canmore Folk Music Festival
- Edmonton Folk Music Festival
- Winnipeg Folk Festival (Birds Hill)
- Celtic Colours (Cape Breton)
- Stan Rogers Folk Festival (Canso)
- CityFolkFestival (Ottawa)
- Emerald Music Festival
- Hillside Festival (Guelph)
- Home County Folk Festival (London)
- Mariposa Folk Festival (Orillia)
- Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music (Cambridge)
- Northern Lights Festival Boréal (Sudbury)
- Red Rock Folk Festival (Red Rock)
- Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival (Owen Sound)
- TD Canada Trust Sunfest (London)
- Regina Folk Festival
- Saskatoon FolkFest
Alaska
District of Columbia
Florida
Indiana
Maine
Massachusetts
Montana
New Jersey
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Travelling
Washington
Oceania
Australia
New Zealand
- Whare Flat Folk Festival - held over the New Year period at Whare Flat near Dunedin; run by Dunedin's New Edinburgh Folk Club
References
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Folk festivals. |
- West, Shearer (general editor), The Bullfinch Guide to Art History, page 440, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United Kingdom, 1996. ISBN 0-8212-2137-X
- Harman, Danna (19 April 2013). "Jacobs Ladder, the Friendly 'Festival for Everyone" – via Haaretz.
- "English - Boombalfestival". Archived from the original on 5 October 2016. Retrieved 19 September 2016.
- "KAUSTINEN FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL". KAUSTINEN FOLK MUSIC FESTIVAL.
- "England's Medieval Festival - Herstmonceux Castle 25th, 26th and 27th August 2018". englandsmedievalfestival.com.
- "FolkEast - 18th, 19th & 20th August 2017 Glemham Hall, Suffolk". www.folkeast.co.uk.
- "El Grande de Grandes". Ballet Folklórico de Honduras Oro Lenca. Retrieved 30 July 2018.
- Gisler, Margaret (2004). "Feast of the Hunters' Moon". Fun with the Family Indiana (5th ed.). Globe Pequot. pp. 177–178. ISBN 978-0-7627-2978-4.
- "Montana Folk Festivals FREE Summer Music Festival - Butte, Montana, July 13-15, 2018". montanafolkfestival.com.
- "Home - Sustaining Scandinavian Folk Arts in the Upper Midwest". folklife.wisc.edu.
Further reading
- Coffin, Tristam P.; Cohen, Hennig, (editors), Folklore in America; tales, songs, superstitions, proverbs, riddles, games, folk drama and folk festivals, Garden City, N.Y. : Doubleday, 1966. Selections from the Journal of American folklore. Cf. chapter on "Folk Drama and Folk Festival", pp. 195–225,