The Oxford Folk Festival is a small but lively and inclusive grass-roots festival, which takes place annually over a weekend in April. It is largely free to visitors, and it exists to celebrate folk music and dance, and those who perform it, in every possible form.  Much of the entertainment is provided by enthusiasts from Oxford and Oxfordshire but we welcome participants from anywhere in the UK or beyond.

The current ‘show runners’ took over at short notice in early 2024, when the previous organisation reluctantly withdrew because of lack of funding. The dates for 2024 had already been fixed, so it was decided to go ahead anyway, after some last minute fundraising. Luckily for us, the April 2024 Festival received an enormously positive response in the local press and social media. Our second Oxford Folk Festival took place on the weekend of the 11th-13th April 2025.

What has made it possible for our festival to continue and flourish for singers, bands and songwriters, is that several key central Oxford locations, spearheaded by the Covered Market and strongly supported by the Tap Social Movement, the Old Fire Station, the Bodleian Library, the Westgate public library, Common Ground, the Oxford Museum and Blackwells, have all donated performance areas to us. This means that good amateur and semi-professional performers can showcase their repertoire and talents without incurring extra costs, and they enjoy the use of congenial platforms for their performances.

The local artists’ programme is only a part of the proceedings. We are proud of the way that dance is a huge feature of the Oxford Folk Festival. This is provided through our close collaboration with Oxfolk. Indoors, it is through Oxfolk that we offer wonderful, high-energy ceilidhs, to the accompaniment of excellent callers and bands. Outdoors, countless performances by Morris sides dance in the streets in key central areas of the city. Throughout the weekend, the streets of Oxford are filled with dance, music and vibrant colour.

Ticketed events also appear in our programme, so that enthusiasts can hear top professional folk musicians during the festival weekend. Because of costs, this offer is currently limited, but we hope to develop this area as we progress.

We aim to be as inclusive as possible, and when we started our initial promotion as a new organisation, we styled ourselves as ‘the little city festival with a big heart’. We think that is true, and we hope you will agree if you stroll our way.