A folk festival celebrates traditional 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.
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.[West, Shearer (general editor), The Bullfinch Guide to Art History, page 440, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, United Kingdom, 1996. ] As at folk festivals, such art and handicraft may also appear at historical reenactments and events such as .
Africa
Morocco
South Africa
-
Misty Waters Music Festival
Asia
Bangladesh
-
Dhaka International Folk Fest
India
Israel
Europe
-
Europeade (held each year in a different European country)
Bosnia and Herzegovina
-
Ilidža Folk Music Festival
-
Ilidža International Children's Folklore Festival
Belgium
Bulgaria
-
Stara planina fest Balkan folk
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
-
Kaustinen Folk Music Festival
France
-
Festival Interceltique de Lorient (Inter-Celtic Festival of Lorient)
-
Saint-Chartier
Germany
-
Festival-Mediaval XIV, "Folk of the World"
Greece
-
Kerasovo Festival, Ioannina
Ireland
Lithuania
-
Kaziuko mugė (Saint Casimir's Fair), Vilnius
-
Mėnuo Juodaragis (Black-Horned Moon or Moon of the Black Horn), Zarasai
-
Parbėg laivelis (Little Ship Is Coming Back), Klaipėda
Netherlands
Russia
Spain
-
Interceltic Festival of Avilés
-
Interceltic Festival of Morrazo
-
Ortigueira's Festival of Celtic World
United Kingdom
-
Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival (location changes each year)
England
-
Beverley Folk Festival, Beverley, East Riding of Yorkshire
-
Cambridge Folk Festival, Cherry Hinton, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire
-
England's Medieval Festival, Nutley, East Sussex
-
Fairport's Cropredy Convention, Cropredy, Oxfordshire
-
FolkEast, Somerleyton Hall (near Somerleyton), Suffolk
-
Middlewich Folk and Boat Festival, Middlewich, Cheshire
-
Shrewsbury Folk Festival, Shrewsbury, Shropshire
-
Sidmouth Folk Festival, Sidmouth, Devon
-
Wickham Festival, Wickham, Hampshire
-
Wimborne Folk Festival, Wimborne Minster, Dorset
Northern Ireland
Scotland
Wales
North America
Canada
Alberta
-
Calgary Folk Music Festival, Calgary
-
Canmore Folk Music Festival, Canmore
-
Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Edmonton
British Columbia
Manitoba
-
Winnipeg Folk Festival, Birds Hill Provincial Park, Winnipeg
Newfoundland and Labrador
-
Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Festival, St. John's
Nova Scotia
-
Celtic Colours, Cape Breton Island
-
Lunenburg Folk Harbour Festival
-
Stan Rogers Folk Festival, Canso
Ontario
-
CityFolkFestival, Ottawa
-
Hillside Festival, Guelph
-
Home County Folk Festival, London
-
Mariposa Folk Festival, Orillia
-
Mill Race Festival of Traditional Folk Music, Cambridge
-
Northern Lights Festival Boréal, Greater Sudbury
-
Red Rock Folk Festival, Red Rock
-
Summerfolk Music and Crafts Festival, Owen Sound
-
TD Canada Trust Sunfest, London
Saskatchewan
-
Regina Folk Festival, Regina
Honduras
-
Encuentro Folklórico Nacional El Grande de Grandes
United States
Alaska
Arizona
California
-
Big Sur Folk Festival
-
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
District of Columbia
-
Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Florida
Illinois
-
Fox Valley Folk Music And Storytelling Festival
Indiana
-
Feast of the Hunters' Moon
Maine
Massachusetts
-
Lowell Folk Festival
-
New England Folk Festival
Montana
New Jersey
New York
-
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
-
Old Songs Festival
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
-
Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Oregon
Pennsylvania
-
Flood City Music Festival
-
Philadelphia Folk Festival
-
Pittsburgh Folk Festival
Rhode Island
Tennessee
-
The Americana Folk Festival
Texas
Traveling
Washington
Wisconsin
-
Great River Folk Fest
-
Holiday Folk Fair
-
Mile of Music
Oceania
Australia
-
National Folk Festival
-
Woodford Folk Festival
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
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,
