Story Ideas

A Continued Celebration

The Richmond Folk Festival is a continuation of the hugely successful National Folk Festival that was held in Richmond from 2005 through 2007. The oldest multi-cultural traditional arts celebration in the nation, the National Folk Festival has been celebrating the roots, richness and variety of American culture through music, dance, traditional craft and food since 1934.

Germinating festivals of their own is part of the mission of the National Folk Festival, hence the reason for its three-year stay in select cities. Of the six cities that preceded Richmond as host for the National Folk Festival — Lowell, Massachusetts; Chattanooga, Tennessee; Dayton, Ohio; East Lansing, Michigan; and Bangor, Maine — only one no longer has its own event, Chattanooga’s Southern Folk Festival failed after two years due to lack of funding.

A Community Effort

More than 1,200 people volunteered their time last year to the National Folk Festival, coming from all across Virginia and even as far as Maine and Canada. More than 20 local businesses gave sponsorship dollars to pay for this $1.4 million event, which assured FREE admission to attendees. Without this support, this great event would never happen. The 2009 Richmond Festival will require just as many volunteers and even more community support than before.

Richmond Folk Festival GOES GREEN!

Everywhere you turn at this year’s Richmond Folk Festival, festival-goers will be able to help our environment. For the first time this year recycling is available throughout the festival site.  From glass to plastic to paper, you can place it in a bin for reuse.  Also, food vendors at this year’s festival are using recyclable serving products.  Many are using containers created from corn, sugar and potatoes that have been formed into sturdy serving platters, cups and utensils that allow them to completely biodegrade.

We are fortunate to have a wonderful volunteer core from Benedictine High School serving as our official GREEN TEAM at the Richmond Folk Festival. They will assist in making sure all products are placed in the correct containers to help us GO GREEN!

Also, all compost created by the Richmond Folk Festival will be used at Tuckahoe Plantation as a crop fertilizer.