The Enchanting World of Folklore Festivals
In a world where cultures intermingle and modernity often eclipses tradition, folklore festivals stand as celebrations of heritage and culture. As windows into the past, they offer a glimpse into age-old customs, myths, and artistic expressions.
In today’s Zoom In, we will highlight some of these amazing gems that are currently running or will take place in the next few months !
Goulash Disko Festival 2023
13 - 17 Sep 2023 | Hvar, Croatia
Since its first edition in 2013, Goulash Disko Festival has evolved from a tiny beach event on Vis island (Croatia) into a full blown music festival, completely integrated in the fisherman village where it takes place.
Goulash Disko is a family size festival with 4 stages, more than 100 bands, dj’s and producers, 40 workshops, that gathers a team of 100+ workers, 50+ volunteers and many partners on the island and beyond. The festival has a limited capacity of 1000 visitors coming from all around the world, and has the particularity of being the first ever crowdfunded music festival.
With multiple record breaking crowdfunding campaigns over the years, the event found its sustainability without sponsors nor subsidies, while developing an international network of hundreds of artists from very different backgrounds, together with countless long lasting connections in the global underground and world music scenes.
Find their entire programme here.
Picture: Goulash Disko Facebook page
The World People (VERDENSFOLK)
17 Jun - 30 Nov 2023 | Oslo, Norway
The World People's Cultural Festival is a meeting place for dance, music, and food from all over the world! They work to increase interest and knowledge of different cultures, as well as their music and dance in Norway.
As a cultural festival, they create meeting places and events that celebrate the diversity in our society. Their goal is to be a vibrant hub for different cultures and create opportunities for musicians, dancers, artists, and performers from diverse backgrounds to showcase and share their art and culture with the citizens of Oslo.
Their events are running with an ideal purpose that focuses on creating good experiences for the public through the dissemination of music, dance and culture in collaboration with various players in the cultural industry. In this way, People of the World contribute to preserving and communicating different cultural expressions from around the world.
You can find more information about them on their main website and follow them on their social media for more update on their programme.
Picture: Verdensfolk facebook page
Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2023
3 - 29 Oct 2023 | Edinburgh, United Kingdom
There are plenty of reasons to explore Edinburgh – its distinct and beautiful geography, its enlightening history and culture, its amazing food and drink – especially when the streets come alive during our festivals. And as Hallowe’en approaches, Edinburgh lights its seasonal storytelling hearth and welcomes everyone to its glow.
Great stories well told can evoke indelible images in the mind of the listener, offering locals and visitors a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the extraordinary tales, music and characters that bring both our contemporary and traditional culture to life.
The Festival brings together a large number of Scottish and international storytellers and musicians and takes place in October each year, as the seasons change with long nights drawing families and friends around the hearth, inspired by the Scottish ceilidh tradition and its sense of togetherness – a community gathering full of tales, anecdotes, music, songs and ballads.
You can discover their programme here.
Picture: Scottish International Storytelling Festival Facebook page
The Storytelling Festival (Berättarfestivalen)
16 - 22 Oct 2023 | Skellefteå, Sweden
The 2023 Storytelling Festival in Skellefteå treats you with a full week of storytelling experiences throughout the Municipality of Skellefteå. Most performances are in Swedish but they also present programmes in English.
This festival is filled with the power of storytelling and the delight that comes from watching and listening. You will meet storytellers from the Storytelling Town of Skellefteå and from the region of Västerbotten, as well as a wide range of professional storytelling guests from throughout the Nordic region and Europe.
The festival is a shop window for all forms of storytelling. The aim is to highlight the importance of storytelling, both on stage and as a working method in other areas such as teaching, integration, the transfer of cultural inheritance and corporate storytelling. The festival displays the art of storytelling in many different forms – storytelling theatre, storytelling cafés, literary storytelling, seminars, music, competitions, workshops, children story times and a lot more. There are more than 100 events during the week, in many different venues around Skellefteå municipality including Sara – the new cultural centre, currently one of the tallest timber buildings in the world.
Find their full programme here.
Picture: FestivalFinder.eu
Samhain: Limericks Hallowe'en Festival 2023
26 - 28 Oct 2023 | Limerick, Ireland
The celebrations of Samhain on the evening of October 31st and continue into November 1st. Samhain reflects the spiritual connection to nature and the cycles of life and death in Celtic cultures. It is believed to be a time when the boundary between the physical world and the spirit world is thin. While modern Halloween has evolved with its own customs, its origins can be traced back to the ancient traditions of Samhain.
This festival in Limerick celebrates Samhain with focus on Limerick heritage and traditions surrounding Hallowe'en; with community involvement, public participation at its core. Samhain celebrates and showcases the medieval quarter of Limerick City.
Lumen Street Theatre bring ‘Samhain’, Limerick’s Hallowe'en Festival back to the streets of Limerick between October 26th - 28th. This year’s festival will be live, an affair full of diversity for all the family.
You will find their programme on their facebook page and main website.
Picture: FestivalFinder.eu
