Albuquerque Folk Festival

Goal and Purpose :

The Albuquerque Folk Festival is focused on public participation. It is about teaching, not just entertainment. Our goal is to pass on knowledge, skills, and traditions to ensure the survival of folk activities. We enlist organizations and individuals to demonstrate and teach wide-ranging folk activities that include old American, New Mexican, Middle Eastern, and other international traditions. We see the teaching of folk activities as a process of encouraging creative expression and fostering a sense of community. Participation in folk activities can reconnect individuals with their neighbors, and participation in folk activities across cultures may encourage cultural tolerance. We aspire to remind people of the days when they could create their own entertainment by going to the community dance, telling stories to their families, or playing music on the front porch with friends. We seek to create alternatives to the public trend of relying on passive entertainment: participation instead of observation

Mission statement :

The Albuquerque Folk Festival provides an opportunity for the public to experience and participate in folk music, song, dance, and storytelling through educational workshops, demonstrations and performances. Folk activities enhance community expression and the continuance of cultural traditions.