The Folk Festival tradition continues

Today I was pleased to officially launch the National Folk Festival 2012.

The longest running festival of its kind in Australia, the National Folk Festival is traditionally held in Canberra each year at Exhibition Park over the Easter long weekend. This year’s festival is from April 5 to April 9.

The National Folk Festival features four days and five nights of performances from more than 160 local, interstate and overseas entertainers, spread across more than 20 stages.

Each day is packed with workshops where visitors can join in the dancing, singing and playing, or just sit and listen to world-class performers.

It’s also a real community event with more than 1400 volunteers working with a small core of paid staff to bring it all together.

The National Folk Festival is a great part of Canberra’s entertainment and cultural landscape. I encourage all music lovers to head out to Exhibition Park this Easter to check out what the Festival has to offer.

The National Folk Festival has a long-standing relationship with Exhibition Park and Canberra, first coming to the venue in 1993. Since that time the audiences have grown from 15,000 to more than 50,000, with more half of visitors coming from interstate.

In 2009 the festival won the Qantas National Tourism Award for Best Festival Event, and in 2011 won the ACT Canberra and Capital Region Tourism Award for Festivals and Events.