UK Folk Festivals - Mainly Free

Dublin's biggest and best festival of Irish Music and Culture, the Temple Bar TradFest will be back for the 7th year from January 25-29th 2012. The 2012 festival will include headline concerts in Christ Church, City Hall and The Button Factory. Other highlights include over 200 free events, music trail, singers club, open session, two outdoor stages, the international Celtic Irish dance festival, master classes and showcases, gigs for kids, children's club, pipe bands, street performers and much more.

An event for both students and the general public of Cork. Featuring the best of Irish musicians from around the country.

The Russell Memorial Weekend is a traditional festival held in Doolin on the the last full weekend in February each year. The festival began in 1995 as a remembrance ceremony to Micho Russell, the world-famous traditional musician, who died in 1994.

There are about 60 gigs of acoustic and electric blues-based music in 20 indoor venues.

Swanage hosts several festivals

Fundraiser for their main October festival

All the sessions are free and everyone is welcome: Musicians, Singers, Poets, Storytellers, or maybe just to listen

Web site has very little info just now.

Music and traditional springtime Green Man festival, craft fair.

Morris dancing, singing, traditional festival.
site not fully updated on our last visit.

Holmfirth Festival of Folk sprang from the ashes of Holmfirth Folk Festival in 2005 and has grown into an extremely popular community based festival drawing in a large local audience in addition to the usual 'folkies'. The events take place in the local pubs and on the streets and the vast majority are free. Because of this, we don’t have a lot of money to spend on big names but be assured you will get quality. So if that is the kind of festival you like, we would love to see you!

It's yet another year for this festival that donates the proceeds to charity.

Runs twice a year, the other one is in September.

Be there. Donate. Feel good.

A mixture of folk music and folk dancing, with craft fairs. Public displays on Sunday are free, with two folk concerts (tickets required) on Saturday and Sunday, and music are several venues in the town

Music from Cornwall, and other countries, such as English and Celtic music. An entirely acoustic festival (apart from the ceilidhs), the festival offers a broad mix of singers, dancers and musicians.

Mixture of affordable and free events.

In its 13th year.
With concerts, dance displays, workshops, meet the artist events, busking, informal music and song sessions, the town will be filled with colourful displays of dancing, along with tunes, airs, jigs and reels.
Also featuring the popular guided ‘Pirate and Smugglers’ walk. This small, friendly festival is mainly free, and embraces the talents of old and young alike and actively encourages visitors to join in the sessions with the ‘stars’ of the show, everyone is a part of the entertainment - not just a spectator.

Includes dance, sessions, celidh, workshops, and music, all set in the delightful surroundings of Weymouth's old harbour

Specialises in mainly local talent. Probably the longest-running free music festival in the country. Web site under construction when we visited.

A free festival featuring two entertainment areas, children's & workshop tents, over 120 stalls - charities, activists, spiritual groups, healers, crafts and fair-traders.

Not quite a folk festival, but it will appeal to some of you.

Music, dance, children's stuff, the event is now widely recognised as the largest free folk festival in the country. The festival has retained its unique, eclectic and idiosyncratic atmosphere.

In its 4th year. A weekend of family fun set in a beautiful location on the the western edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, 16 miles east of Kendal in the south east corner of Cumbria.

A mixture of music genres, expect over 25 mainly Acoustic Acts covering Folk, Blues, Country, Bluegrass, Jazz & all points in between on 2 stages.

Long established blues event in Scotland, and it's free. (Who says we Scots aren't a generous lot, eh?)

Since the formation of the Blues Committee in 2001 there has been two aims, to produce a festival to promote Blues Music in Upton Upon Severn, and to support the local community. To achieve these aims the Upton Blues Festival has always, and will always be free from any admission charge.

What more can you want than the blues for free? 60 or 70 bands perhaps?

A very focused festival, on piping.

Lots of individual events spread over 7 days and 14 venues.

The SEVENTH FREE Acoustic Festival in Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset.

Activities based mainly around the pubs in the Town centre of Burnham-on-Sea.

Large number of acts confirmed now.

And the easiset web address to remember! It must make everyone else jealous.

It's yet another year for this festival that donates the proceeds to charity.

Runs twice a year, the other one is in May.

Be there. Donate. Feel good.

Sligo Live Sessions is a national festival celebrating traditional, roots and acoustic music. Now in its sixth year, it has carved out a niche as one of the most relaxed, intimate and enjoyable music festivals in Ireland. Sligo Live.

100 events, 80% free, All Indoors. Intimate Concerts.Street Markets.Over 350 artists.Dynamic pub sessions. Cafe Culture & Sligo Live Showcase.

With more than 17 hours of free entertainment planned, it must be worth the price of a pint. Please be generous with your donations.

This is the second year for this charity organised event, featuring music, ale, hog roast and lots of fun,

A Winter singalong, to start the year. Come along and join in or just enjoy the music.

And as this is their first ever winter mini-fest, do try to support it.

Marquee concert stage / Rolling Folk Club / Musicians Sessions / Singarounds / Songwriters Showcase / Singing Workshop / Morris Dancing / Bob Dylan 70th Birthday Celebration / Yorkshire Folk Songs Event / Poems & Pints, and more

Informality is the keynote for this popular enthusiasts gathering.

A FREE WEEKEND of Music Sessions and Singarounds in and around the 'famed city of Robin Hood's Bay' on the beautiful Yorkshire Coast.

Site incomplete on last visit

This year marks the 10th year of the GalWay SESSIONS and the second year of our growing partnership and friendship with Stirling in Scotland. We welcome back the Scots who brought great life and excitement to the streets, pubs and concert halls of Galway last June. We look forward to more of the same! We also welcome new friends from Newfoundland, a friendship we intend to nurture in future years making the Galway Sessions an inter-Celtic and trans-Atlantic Festival.

This festival covers a large number of events of many different types. It includes several folk music events.

It will probably appeal in different ways to different people. Saturday 18th has a free event. Search their site for more details.

Droylsden Folk Festival Weekend has put itself firmly on the map as one of the premier folk music festivals in the North West of England, attracting well-known performers and local artistes with its friendly, laid-back approach to having a good time.

Virtually on the Kent / London border the Crayside Folk Day is taking place in the Seven Stars, a Grade 2 listed riverside pub designated a landmark building.

Site incomplete when we last visited.

A mixture of local acts, dancers and ceilidh band, acoustic session on Friday, live music all day Saturday.

A celebration of the music of Wales and other small nations.

Here you will find the best of Welsh and International music in all its wonderful variety.

Great live music all day
50 local musicians, singers and bands
Guest Ales
Good food and drink
BBQ

The festival aims to bring together musical traditions across all cultural divides and the direction pursued in recent years has been to incorporate the Ulster Scots tradition alongside Traditional Irish music. This has greatly enhanced audience participation in a diverse range of events. People from different sides of the community have become exposed to music, song and dance that they may not have been familiar with before.

Music, dance, steam and beer.

Says it all, really.
10th Anniversary.

Web site under construction at last visit.

Ceilidhs, Concerts, Competitions,
Singarounds, Street Entertainment, Sessions

A small festival, with some main events and several pub sessions.

One of our main objectives, being a small Festival, is to ensure that all visitors have an event to attend, be it concert, singaround, music session, workshop or dance display.
The festival has gradually expanded to cater for the tastes and interests of travelling folk music enthusiasts and local residents alike.

Our aim was to get children involved in music, to show them it can be fun and very rewarding. It is also to enable musicians of all standards to come along and join in.

All types of music and musicians welcome.

Come and enjoy a weekend of Scottish Borders hospitality.

Enjoy a friendly and relaxed celebration of live music and culture around a free outdoor stage in the beautiful village of Priston, 6 miles from Bath. The festival boasts an impressive line-up of live music (traditional, jazz, world, blues, rock, classical, choral) on a free open-air stage, as well as kids’ events, morris dancing, singing and dance workshops, children's art project, performance poetry, book talk, market stalls, food/drink etc. Ticketed events are also staged in local venues over the weekend.

Another fine Scottish festival

Another FREE event at Swanage! How do they do it!
Free Admission to 40 gigs in 15 indoor venues
Open Mic daily, Electric Jam Sessions, Buskers, Blues Steam Train rides
Festival Friendly Accommodation

A festival for those who love to hear (or play) Irish Traditional music of the highest quality in its most natural setting. The festival brings together the very best of Irish traditional musicians, singers and dancers in a relaxed and informal atmosphere.

From a humble beginning in 2006 the Tenby Blues Festival has grown rapidly and is now firmly established as one of the major events in the UK Blues calendar. This intimate and friendly festival has built its reputation on the strength of its line up that just gets better by the year.

A festival promoting live music of all styles and genres and at all levels!
Various genres of music (Folk, Jazz, Classical, Rock/Pop), Musical workshops, Dance workshops for school children, RSPBA-DPA Branch Solo Piping & Drumming Competition, The Big Dance
Disco for kids
Family Ceilidh