Our cross-cutting themes

Festival Director Didier Rochard introduces our golden threads - the cross-cutting themes of FolkeFest.

Folk music was first created by the people for the people, world over - anybody could participate. It arose from working on the land, from cultural beliefs and customs, the changing seasons; a sharing and a togetherness which embraces roots and expresses values  – these are ever-changing and provide exciting ways in for diverse audiences.

FolkeFest helps revitalise folk music. We promote community, local shared identities and connections. We embrace and celebrate the natural world. FolkeFest builds on folk music’s great traditions of politics, folklore, myths, legends and word of mouth, but with a modern twist.

Our golden threads are:

1. Time and a Place – acknowledging traditions in folk music and updating them 

2. Queer-ass Folke - queering folk music and taking it out of its current confines

3. Folkesong – shanties and group songs

4. Word Of Mouth – tales, stories, poems

5. Woke Folk – talks, questions and discussions

6. Folk:Us – visual folk arts and community folk arts

7. EartHeart – connecting with nature