Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival Set For July 10th – 12th, 2020

The 44th Annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival will take place on July 10th – 12th, 2020 in Bannerman Park, St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. 

Produced by the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society (NLFAS), a charitable organization, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival is a cultural highlight of the summer calendar celebrating traditional and contemporary folk music, storytelling, and dance from the province and beyond.

The festival has traditionally been held the weekend following Regatta Day, a weather-dependent civic holiday on the first Wednesday in August. Festival organizers have enjoyed a long streak of good luck with the Regatta going ahead as scheduled since 2009. Due to a reliance on many shared resources, a delay of the Regatta would inevitably keep the Folk Festival from going ahead as scheduled. As such, the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival will now take place earlier in the summer season.

“Many people have the weekend after Regatta ingrained in their minds as Folk Festival weekend, so we know it’s a break with tradition. But we’ve been playing Regatta Roulette with our flagship event, and it’s not a risk we can continue to take. We don’t want people to be disappointed by the cancellation of their favourite act because of the impact of the Regatta being delayed,” says Anna Brophy, President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society. 

The lineup of the 44th Annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival will be announced in the spring of 2020.