Everyone has a different Folk Week – ask 50 people what is their favourite part of the festival and they will each tell you something completely different!

It’s a traditional folk music and dance festival – that’s how it began – and that remains right at the heart of Folk Week. Over the past 54 years, the festival has become a magnet for people who love authentic music, the opportunity to dance and sing and meet up with an extended family of every generation and from around the world.

Our festival-goers love discovering new bands, seeing old favourites and chancing upon things you would never expect to see at a folk festival!

Whether you are a family looking for child-friendly events, have lots of energy to burn off dancing or singers and musicians seeking out a session – with around 70 events a day, you’ll find something to entertain you from early till late. You can tailor make your festival experience to suit you.

Broadstairs is almost like a Cornish fishing village – perched on the coast at the end of Kent and Folk Week happens almost everywhere in the town.

There’s hardly a venue that isn’t bursting with song, music and dance. There is a mix of ticketed and free events – and you can come for one ticketed event in one venue – or buy a whole week’s all-in ticket that gets you into all the venues.

You can find Folk Week by the beach in the Pavilion on the Sands or the Sailing Club; in the town’s historic Crampton Tower and the modern Baptist Centre –as well as in loads of pubs and cafes – and of course – along the promenade at the Bandstand, overlooking beautiful Viking Bay. It’s a great way of getting to know Broadstairs!

The Festival Campsite is located at a local school – and one of the benefits of coming to this chalky corner of East Kent is that the fields are free-draining – so no Glastonbury style mud in Broadstairs!

Overlooking the beach on the clifftop Victoria Gardens, there’s a special Craft & Music Fair with a huge variety of ceramics, clothing, musical instruments, paintings, jewellery and gifts with free entry.

And next door is the bandstand, a totally free venue which hosts the ever-popular Hobby Horse Club with the madcap Hooden Horses and Clarence the Dragon.

And last but not least, Folk Week wouldn’t be the same without the hard-working morris dancers who bring colour and eccentricity to the streets and shows around the town.

Folk Week has plenty of opportunities to join in – whether you just drag grandpa onto the dance-floor for a bit of a swing around at the lunch-time Family Ceilidh or you’d like to brush up your ukulele strum – there’s a range of singing, dancing and playing dances, workshops and sessions for all different ages and abilities.

You can sing shanties on the jetty, playalong in the pub sessions or get into Appalachian clogging.

Whatever Folk Week you want to find – we hope to see you in 2019!