In hopes to attract newer younger attendees, the Philadelphia Folk Festival is launching a special first timer promotion code. This year will be the 61st year of the festival.

According to Festival Director Michael Braunfeld, “this is an incredibly important year for the Festival.”

“After 58 continuous years, the event was forced to go virtual for two years during COVID,” Braunfeld said. “It was brought back in 2022 but the pandemic and other factors dictated that it could not be held at all in 2023.”

Press relations festival director Kimberly Sinclair believes that, “The Festival serves the mission by programming and presenting folk music from around the world, to all ages.”

The Philadelphia Folk Festival is a yearly program presented by the Philadelphia Folksong Society that serves to preserve the past, promote the present, and secure the future of folk music and related forms of expression through education, presentation and participation,” Sinclair said. 

Preparation for the festival typically takes a year to present. With a guessed attendance of “30,000 people or so,” the society counts on volunteers to keep the festival running. 

We typically have anywhere between 1,500 to 2,500 volunteers working for different committees that build and tear down everything that is not a permanent structure, set up electric and Wi-Fi, establish communication systems, provide amenities to the attendees, handle parking, police the grounds, and produce concerts on seven stages throughout the weekend,” Braunfeld said.

 According to (folkfest.org), “The Philadelphia Folk Festival emerged as a pivotal event in folk music history in the United States.”

“Inaugurated in 1962 at Wilson Farm near Paoli, Pennsylvania, the festival featured renowned artists such as Reverend Gary Davis, Bonnie Dobson, and Pete Seeger,” folk fest. org said. 

Braunfeld believes, “the Festival is a magical place.”

“Stages and stages of all different types of music, craft vendors and food vendors, fun activities for the entire family, and much, much more. And that’s not even including the campground, a truly amazing place where campers play music and jam into the early morning hours,” Braunfeld said. 

According to Sinclair, “This is not just a Festival, it is a way of life.”

“To experience the Philadelphia Folk Festival is to experience something rare and unique. A group of people, from all walks of life, come together every year for a common goal. To see each other, to enjoy each other’s company and to celebrate folk music,” Sinclair said.