Newfoundland & Labrador Folk Arts Society Inc.

The 48th Annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival returned to Bannerman Park from July 12-14 2024. Nearly 14 000 patrons and volunteers took part in the Festival hearing over 95 musicians perform. The Ship Pub hosted the weekly Folk Night at the Ship on each Wednesday when the Newfoundland weather cooperated. The last Wednesday of the month is 'trad night' - where local musicians gather around a table and play our traditional NL tunes jigs and reels. 'The Broadside' was a weekly streaming series featuring our NL performing artists story-tellers and more. It has a loyal following of over 5 000 folks the world over. 'The Broadside' started during the pandemic but its audience wanted it to continue. Sadly it wasn't funded in 2024 and ceased broadcasting in May 2024. The Holiday Wassail treated audiences to some favourite Christmas carols on December 18th & 19th at O'Brien's Farm with over 240 attending. We enjoyed being together hearing artists such as Anita Best Sandy Morris among many more. Finally we sponsored seven separate sessions of Young Folk at the Hall all throughout the province thanks to a generous grant from CelebrateNL. Nearly 130 young people performed for audiences of over 200. Only by reaching the young folks will we grow the adult musicians we are known for. We also had Young Folk at the Camp the Young Folk Mentor Program and we professionally recorded 8 youth for our Young Folk Recording program. We started FolQ Open Mic from our FolQ Fund designated for this purpose. Queer artists shared their talents on the 4th Thursday every month at the Battery Cafe.