How To Find Folk Festival Schedules

Folk festivals have a long and colorful history in the United States. Some of the earliest known folk events in the folk calendar include the West Virginia State Folk Festival, the Kutztown Folk Festival, and the Florida Folk Festival. The oldest known grass roots festival that can be found in the United States is the Fiesta de Santa Fe, established in 1715. However, the term “folk festival” only came into existence in the 1890s, to describe the events being organized by traveling musicians from Virginia.

The American folk roots festival traces its earliest beginnings to the religious revival gatherings, political meetings, and Saturday evening community dances organized by the towns of yesteryear. Since even the most rudimentary of folk festivals required a certain amount of organization to put together the manpower and resources necessary to get it off the ground, most were scheduled as annual events on the folk calendar. Because of the annual nature of the events, it has become easier for the folk festival followers to determine the schedules of the folk blues festivals around the country.

Here's how to find the schedules of folk festivals around the country.

• If you are a fan of the New England Folk Festival (also known as NEFFA), the easiest way to get your hands on their schedule of events is to go to their website, neffa.org. One of the website's special features is the daily schedules link, which will lead you to a detailed description of  different events held during the upcoming or current festival.
• For the Alaska Folk Festival, the website to go to is akfolkfest.org. This is a completely volunteer-driven festival, which means that the performers are not paid to participate in the festival, but perform instead for the camaraderie and the overall experience. If you are a performer who wants to know about the festival or a folk festival follower who would like to take part, there is a link on the website which should answer all your questions.
• For the Newport Folk Festival, one good website to visit is www.ticketsinventory.com. Since the Newport Folk Festival is known for its musical performers, you can look for the schedule and ticket information under the Concert tab on the home page of the website.
• For the Whispering Beard Folk Festival, another good website to go to is coasttocoasttickets.com. Similar to the Tickets Inventory website, the folk festival schedules and ticket information can be found under the Concert tab on their home page.
• For the Flagstaff Folk Festival, their official website is flagfolkfest.org. A comprehensive website, this includes not only the schedule of the folk festival for the year but also booking details, vendor information, and archives from the previous year's festival.

If you are a newcomer to the folk festival scene, your best option is to take your pick of the most popular and well-known festivals to date. Most big festivals have their own websites, which makes it a snap for even the greenest festival fan to find the up-to-date information on nearly any annual folk festival.