RICHMOND, VA: The Richmond Folk Festival returns October 10-12, in its twenty-first year as one of Virginia’s largest and most cherished events. Each year, thousands return to Downtown Richmond’s riverfront to celebrate the roots, richness, and variety of American culture through music, dance, traditional crafts, storytelling, and food. The free festival is held over three days, featuring six stages and showcasing music and dance from more than 30 performing groups from around the nation and the world.
This year’s festival site will be slightly modified to adjust for the many additions to the landscape of Downtown’s riverfront. The updated site map will be available on the festival website soon, as well as in the pocket guides distributed at the festival.
“Downtown Richmond’s riverfront continues to experience exciting changes, in part due to its popularity from the many remarkable events over the past several years,” said Stephen Lecky, director of events at Venture Richmond. “We’re really happy to be able to incorporate some of those additions into this year’s folk festival.”
The Richmond Folk Festival today announces the first eight artists of what will once again make up a multicultural and artistically excellent program.
Artists to be featured at the 2025 Richmond Folk Festival include:
The Amanda Cook Band (bluegrass)
Fancy Gap, Virginia
Diunna Greenleaf & Blue Mercy (blues)
Houston, Texas
Meta & the Cornerstones (reggae)
New York, New York
Raiatea Helm (Hawaiian falsetto singing)
Honolulu, Hawai’i
Richard Hagopian Ensemble (Armenian)
Fresno, California
Son Qba (Cuban son)
Miami, Florida
Terry & the Zydeco Bad Boys (zydeco)
Duson, Louisiana
Yamini Kalluri & the Kritya Music Ensemble (Kuchipudi dance)
Lansing, Michigan
Click here for extended artist bios, plus audio and video samples on our website.
The Richmond Folk Festival is presented by Venture Richmond Events in partnership with the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), Virginia Humanities, Center for Cultural Vibrancy, Children’s Museum, and the City of Richmond.
Friends of the Festival
Become a Friend of the Festival to help sustain the Richmond Folk Festival for many years to come! Gifts from our Friends ensure the consistency and future of the performances and programs that we all enjoy. Your support is invaluable to us as we work to sustain one of Virginia's largest artistic and cultural gatherings and the largest folk festival of its kind in the country.
Benefits of being a Friend of the Festival include two weekend parking passes to the Richmond Folk Festival, your name/company on four Thank You banners located at the festival, your name/company on our sponsors webpage, a commemorative RFF Friends enameled pin and a limited-edition screen print version of the official festival poster hand-signed and numbered by the artist.
Learn more and sign up here! https://www.richmondfolkfestival.org/donations
Festival Hours
Friday, October 10 — 6:30pm - 10:00pm
Saturday, October 11 — 12:00pm - 9:30pm
Sunday, October 12 — 12:00pm - 6:00pm
More information on the festival and additional artists performing will follow later this summer.
For more information about the Richmond Folk Festival, visit www.richmondfolkfestival.org. #RVAFolkFest - Text to Give! Text FOLK to 44321
The Richmond Folk Festival is sponsored in part by: Altria, Dominion Energy, CoStar Group, CarMax, Pauley Family Foundation, NewMarket Corp., City of Richmond, Performance Food Group, Brown Distributing, Unlocking Potential: VCU's Campaign for the Future, Community Foundation, Atlantic Union Bank, VPM/Style Weekly, WNRN, 12OnYourSide, Richmond Times-Dispatch, Hamilton Family Foundation, National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), Virginia Humanities, Center for Cultural Vibrancy, Children’s Museum, University of Richmond, Fralin Pickups, American Civil War Museum, National Park Service, JAMinc, Plan 9 Music, RMC Events, Virginia Housing, Winn Transportation, House of Hayes, Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond and the 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 got its start 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