Wimborne Folk Festival

Wimborne Minster Folk Festival
Alton Morris at Wimborne Folk Festival 2011
Genre	Folk music, folk dance
Frequency	Annually in June
Location(s)	Wimborne Minster, United Kingdom
Inaugurated	1980
Attendance	Up to 30,000
Website
www.wimbornefolk.co.uk

Wimborne Minster Folk Festival took over from the previously known Wimborne Folk Festival in 2013 when the previous organisers retired in August 2012, after over 30 years organising the festival. The annual festival is still internationally recognised for its traditional English folk music and dance, held in the market town of Wimborne Minster in Dorset, England.

The original festival was founded in 1980 as a traditional festival of folk dance and music. It began as a one-day event, but quickly grew to become a weekend-long festival, held annually over Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the second full weekend in June. It is still one of the largest gathering of dance teams and musicians in the South of England, attracting an audience of up to 30,000 people. Several streets near the ancient Wimborne Minster are closed during the Festival. Attractions include concerts, ceilidhs, workshops, dance displays, street markets and family areas.

The climactic scenes of the 2009 film Morris: A Life with Bells On, a mockumentary about morris dancing, were filmed at the festival.

The 30th anniversary Festival, held from 11 to 13 June 2010, attracted 45 dance sides and an estimated crowd of 20,000 people.

On 19 August 2012, it was announced on the official Wimborne Folk Festival website that, due to a lack of financial support, the 2012 festival that was held in June, would be the last.

In September 2012, a small group of volunteers took the challenge of continuing the festival for 2013 and future years. With the change of organisers, the festival name was changed to Wimborne Minster Folk Festival following the request from the previous organisers.

The new festival has been a huge success each year under new organisation and have kept the festival legacy alive.

Through a number of committee changes, the festival still continues to grow and is only down to the support of local businesses, councils and our audience why it still continues to this day.