Winnipeg Folk Festival

The People
There’s something magical about Folk Fest that makes everyone who attends feel like their best selves. A special community forms at the festival, people of all ages that you’ve never met feel like neighbours and friends, making the atmosphere welcoming and relaxed.
The festival is run by 18 permanent and contract staff and overseen by a volunteer board of 14 very nice people – it’s a nonprofit AND a charity.
Over 2,700 volunteers help run the four-day festival. Many have been volunteering with the festival for 20, 30 and 40 years! They are happy to help you at any turn.
The Music
More than just folk! We have a little something for everyone with a range of roots, world music, indie-rock, electronic, country, Celtic and Americana genres. And many of the 75+ artists in our lineup are playing in Manitoba for the very first time!
We have nine stages throughout the festival site. During the day, these stages are home to concerts, workshops and family programming. In the evenings, Main Stage is where our headlining bands play while Big Blue @ Night has more alternative music to groove to.
Daytime workshops are a huge part of the “discovery” aspect of Folk Fest, for festival goers and artists alike. Workshops allow artists to jam with other artists they may have never had the opportunity to collaborate with and YOU get to discover new music as part of a one-time-only experience!
Award-winning Family Festivities. The Chickadee Big Top is home to live children’s music and fun Friday through Sunday. Located right beside it is the Family Area with games, crafts, reading, face-painting, puppetry and more. Families spend quality time together here throughout the weekend. But please note that this is not a drop-off area for kids to be looked after by volunteers.
On The Festival Site
Download the Winnipeg Folk Fest app before you get to the festival for artist bios, schedules, a site map and other useful information.
Join us in the Festival Village – a great meeting place and home to food vendors, a Tavern, a music store with festival and artist merchandise, ATMs and audience services where you can get a paper program book, charge your phone and check your bag if you don't want to carry it around all day. This area is also home to the Hand-Made Village where nearly 50 artisans from across Canada sell their handcrafted works including jewelry, clothing, pottery and musical instruments!
Keep a Winnipeg Folk Fest tradition alive! Get to the festival grounds early to participate in the tarp shuffle to claim your spot for the evening at Main Stage. Chairs no taller than two feet are welcome in the seating area. Chairs taller than two feet and wheelchairs go to the left of the centre seating area. You’ll find a wheelchair charging station there as well. And if you want to get up and dance, there are big spaces to the right of the centre seating area and behind the Main Stage sound booth.
Lots of space for all! You only have to be shoulder-to-shoulder with other folks if you want to be. There is lots of room for you to spread out and enjoy the music and atmosphere.
Gotta go? We have many well-maintained porta-potties on site stocked full of toilet paper! There are over 150 of them, conveniently located and accessible so there’s never much of a wait.