RICHMOND, VA: The Richmond Folk Festival returns in three weeks, September 27-29, to celebrate its 20th anniversary! Over the past 20 years, the Richmond Folk Festival has become one of Virginia’s largest and most cherished events. It draws fans each year to Downtown Richmond’s riverfront to celebrate the roots, richness, and variety of American culture through music, dance, traditional crafts, storytelling, and food. Over the past two decades, the event's success has contributed to transforming the riverfront's popularity and growth.
The free festival hosts 200,000 people over a three-day weekend. Featuring six stages and showcasing music and dance from more than 30 performing groups from around the nation and the world, the Richmond Folk Festival today announces its full schedule of performances.
To commemorate the event’s 20th anniversary, the festival will feature numerous favorites from past years.
Full Performance Schedule
Read all about the performers at each stage and see the full weekend event schedule.
Read all about each artist performing, plus audio and video samples of each.
Virginia Folklife Area and Center for Cultural Vibrancy Stage
Textile Origin Stories in the Virginia Folklife Area
Discover the African origins of selected textiles and musical expressions as curated by the Elegba Folklore Society in partnership with the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities. Contemporary practices are richly paired with their origin stories. Sample indigo fabric treatments of Mali, Nigeria’s aso oke or Ghana’s kente and African American art quilts or dolls or fashion. Engage with the ngoni, the banjo and the blues, then follow the music back to Africa as supplied by the 21-string kora and the djembe drum. Come into the village.
Read more and see the artists.
Center for Cultural Vibrancy Stage Schedule
The Center for Cultural Vibrancy Stage returns this year with another scintillating lineup of some of the finest traditional artists from across the Commonwealth and beyond. For the 20th anniversary of the Richmond Folk Festival, we’re excited to welcome back some friends who have graced our stage through the years. We’ll revel in the virtuosic jazz stylings of Danny Knicely accompanied by the gifted tap dancer Baakari Wilder; the bluegrass rhythms of Crooked Road legends Johnny and Jeanette Williams backed by returning members of the legendary No Speed Limit bluegrass band; the bluesy prowess of Justin Golden; and the soul-stirring and electrifying harmonies of Richmond’s own Legendary Ingramettes with some very special surprise guests. Our stage will also introduce audiences to a host of gifted artists gracing our stage for the first time. We'll sing Sephardic harmonies with Minnush, get swept up in the evocative Americana and Irish sounds of Anya Hinkle and John Doyle, and be entranced by Steve Martin Banjo Prize-winner Bill Evans.
The Virginia Folklife Area is a partnership between the Virginia Folklife Program of Virginia Humanities and the Center for Cultural Vibrancy.
Family Area, Produced by the Children’s Museum
It’s a Bug Bonanza with CMoR and friends in the Richmond Folk Festival Family Area! Create your own bug version of our iconic bag hat, get your hand painted or craft a cool balloon creation. In the Discover area, search for bizarre bugs while learning interesting facts, check out a live (behind glass) beehive with Master Gardeners sharing information about these amazing pollinators or design and create a Lego brick habitat for our pollinator friends to Build the Change! If you have lots of energy, Soccer Shots is the spot for you or if you desire a quieter option, our friends at the Autism Society of Central Virginia (ASCV) will have a sensory zone with bead bracelets. City Singers will help you connect music to insects and the National Park Service will be back, ready to ‘bug out’ with cool crafts and games.
No matter how you like to play, there is something for everyone at this year's Richmond Folk Festival Family Area presented by the Children’s Museum of Richmond.
Richmond Folk Festival in Schools
The Richmond Folk Festival once again fills auditoriums and classrooms at Richmond-area schools with performances and presentations of deeply rooted cultural expressions shared by some of the country’s finest traditional artists. These programs expose children to performances by excellent artists and provide them with opportunities to learn about new cultures, communities, and artistic traditions, expanding their horizons with interactive, multicultural learning experiences. These outreach programs often reach students with limited access to cultural enrichment opportunities.
This year, the festival will continue its outreach to incarcerated communities as gospel singer Cora Harvey Armstrong visits the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, where she will perform and share a musical collaboration with the inmates there.
These programs are made possible through the generous support of the festival’s sponsors, especially its school shows partner, JAMinc, who provides transportation, audio support, and local on-site coordination.
2024 participating performers*:
● John Doyle & the Irish American Music Masters (Irish)
● Peni Candra Rini (Javanese sindhen)
● Rancho Aparte (Colombian chirimía music)
● Sheryl Cormier & Cajun Sounds (Cajun)
● Supaman (Native American hip hop)
● Tremé Brass Band (New Orleans brass band)
● Ustad Noor Bakhsh (benju master)
Participating schools:
● Armstrong High School
● Thomas C. Boushall Middle School
● George W. Carver Elementary School
● Chimborazo Elementary School
● William Fox Elementary School
● Henry Marsh Elementary School
● John Marshall High School
● Southampton Elementary
● Westover Hills Elementary
*Artists and schools are subject to change.
20th-Anniversary Folk Festival Parade
On Saturday, September 28 at 5:15pm, join the legendary Tremé Brass Band for a parade in honor of the festival’s 20th anniversary! The parade steps off around 5:30pm, after a short performance in front of the American Civil War Museum on Tredegar Street. Fun (free) signs will be handed out as the crowd becomes part of the festivities and joins the parade down Tredegar Street to the Altria Stage.
Festival Hours
Friday, September 27 — 6:30pm - 10:00pm
Saturday, September 28 — 12:00pm - 9:30pm
Sunday, September 29 — 12:00pm - 6:00pm
For more information about the Richmond Folk Festival, visit richmondfolkfestival.org. #RVAFolkFest
Text to Give! Text FOLK to 44321.
Venture Richmond Events produces the Richmond Folk Festival in partnership with the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), Virginia Humanities, Center for Cultural Vibrancy, and the City of Richmond.
The Richmond Folk Festival is sponsored in part by Altria, Dominion Energy, CoStar Group, CarMax, Pauley Family Foundation, NewMarket Corp., Performance Food Group, Brown Distributing, National Endowment for the Arts, Community Foundation, Atlantic Union Bank, VPM, WNRN, 12 On Your Side, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Style Weekly, Virginia is for Lovers, Capital Vacations, Children’s Museum, University of Richmond, Fralin Pickups, Davenport, Hilton Richmond Downtown, American Civil War Museum, National Park Service, The Crooked Road, Jam, Inc., Plan 9 Music, RMC Events, PD Brooks, Virginia Housing, Winn Transportation, House of Hayes, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, Virginia War Memorial
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About the Richmond Folk Festival
The Richmond Folk Festival is one of Virginia's largest events, drawing visitors from all over the country to downtown Richmond's historic riverfront. The festival is a FREE three-day event that started when Richmond hosted the National Council for the Traditional Arts’ National Folk Festival, held in Richmond from 2005-2007. In the tradition of “The National," the Richmond Folk Festival features excellent performing groups representing a diverse array of cultural traditions on seven stages. The festival includes continuous music and dance performances, a Virginia Folklife Area featuring ongoing demonstrations, an interactive Family Area produced by the Children's Museum, a folk-art marketplace, regional and ethnic foods, festival merchandise and more. Additional information is available at www.richmondfolkfestival.org.
About Venture Richmond
Venture Richmond, Inc. is a non-profit organization formed to engage business and community leaders in partnering with the City to enhance the vitality of the community, particularly Downtown, through economic development, marketing, promotion, advocacy and events. Venture Richmond provides enhanced property management services for Downtown, Manchester and the Riverfront, including the Clean & Safe program, beautification and landscaping projects, and management and maintenance of Brown's Island, the Canal Walk and the Belle Isle parking lot.
Venture Richmond Events, LLC, produces Friday Cheers, the 2nd Street Festival, and the Richmond Folk Festival and partners with Sports Backers to produce Dominion Energy Riverrock.
Riverfront Canal Cruises, LLC, operates historically narrated boat tours and private charters of the James River and Kanawha Canal.
Both Venture Richmond Events, LLC, and Riverfront Canal Cruises, LLC, are subsidiaries of Venture Richmond, Inc. For more information visit www.venturerichmond.com.
About the National Council for the Traditional Arts
A leading non-profit in the field, the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) is dedicated to the presentation and documentation of folk and traditional arts in the U.S. Stressing excellence and traditionality, the NCTA presents the nation’s finest traditional artists in major festivals, tours, concerts, workshops, demonstrations, exhibitions, media productions, school programs, cross-cultural exchanges and other activities. It works in partnership with American communities to establish new, sustainable traditional arts events that deliver lasting social, cultural and economic benefits. Over 7,000 hours of the NCTA’s archival audio recordings dating from the 1930s are permanently housed at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The NCTA champions the interests of folk and traditional artists and organizations in the arena of public policy. For more about the NCTA, visit http://ncta-usa.org/.
Venture Richmond, 200 S. Third Street, Richmond, VA 23219