The Albuquerque Folk Festival is a non-profit, 501(c) (3) organization that started as part of the City of Albuquerque’s Arts in the Park program in 1999 and moved to Expo New Mexico in 2001.
Goals 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.
The Folk Ethic
The Albuquerque Folk Festival is committed to the Folk Ethic. The Folk Ethic is focused on self-expression, community, friendship building, and social consciousness. It is non-commercial. It embraces acoustic music with the focus on open participation rather than virtuoso talent. Enjoyment is sought through personal involvement rather than fame through performances and recordings. Those who are skillful at an activity are willing to teach beginners, for they were once beginners themselves who learned from others willing to help without cost. The Folk Ethic believes that enriching others through sharing in folk activities and sharing of each other's resources is the best form of self-expression.
Our Mission
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.