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.
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.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 Renaissance fairs.
Africa Morocco Bashikh festival Mata festival Marrakech Folklore days
South Africa Misty Waters Music Festival
Asia Bangladesh Dhaka International Folk Fest
India Gavari - Sacred Dance Drama Festival Raulane festival
Israel Jacob's Ladder
Europe
Europeade (held each year in a different European country)
Bosnia and Herzegovina Ilidža Folk Music Festival Ilidža International Children's Folklore Festival
Belgium Boombal Festival
Bulgaria Stara planina fest Balkan folk
Denmark Tønder Festival
Estonia Viljandi Folk Festival
Finland Kaustinen Folk Music Festival
France
Festival Interceltique de Lorient (Inter-Celtic Festival of Lorient) Rencontres Internationales de Luthiers et Maîtres-Sonneurs
Germany Festival-Mediaval XIV, "Folk of the World"
Greece Kerasovo Festival, Ioannina
Ireland Temple Bar TradFest
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 Castlefest Worldfestival Parade Brunssum
Russia Empty Hills, Kaluga Oblast Grushinsky festival, near Samara
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 Soma Festival, Castlewellan, County Down
Scotland Celtic Connections, Glasgow Edinburgh Folk Festival, Edinburgh Shetland Folk Festival, Shetland
Wales Between the Trees, Merthyr Mawr Green Man Festival, Brecon Beacons
North America Canada Emerald Music Festival Alberta Calgary Folk Music Festival, Calgary Canmore Folk Music Festival, Canmore Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Edmonton
British Columbia Vancouver Folk Music Festival, Vancouver
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, Lunenburg 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 Alaska Folk Festival
Arizona Tucson Folk Festival
California Big Sur Folk Festival Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival
District of Columbia Smithsonian Folklife Festival
Florida Florida Folk Festival
Illinois Fox Valley Folk Music And Storytelling Festival
Indiana Feast of the Hunters' Moon
Maine American Folk Festival
Massachusetts Lowell Folk Festival New England Folk Festival
Montana Montana Folk Festival
New Jersey New Jersey Folk Festival
New York Falcon Ridge Folk Festival Old Songs Festival
North Carolina Folkmoot USA NC Folk Festival
North Dakota Norsk Høstfest
Oklahoma Woody Guthrie Folk Festival
Oregon Sisters Folk Festival
Pennsylvania Flood City Music Festival Philadelphia Folk Festival Pittsburgh Folk Festival
Rhode Island Newport Folk Festival
Tennessee The Americana Folk Festival
Texas Kerrville Folk Festival
Traveling National Folk Festival
Washington Northwest Folklife
Wisconsin Great River Folk Fest Holiday Folk Fair Mile of Music
Wyoming Wyoming Folklife Festival
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
References
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,