EFN is delighted to announce two pieces of splendid news for the folk and traditional sector in Europe.

Firstly, EFN can now confirm that 23 September 2023 will be the first-ever European Folk Day. 

The idea of a pan-European event to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of the traditional arts of music, advance and storytelling has been a constant theme of enthusiastic discussion with EFN members since the network’s first conference in 2019. And now it will become a reality – on 23 September – appropriately the day of the Autumnal Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere.

Secondly, yesterday the MusicAIRE programme announced that it has awarded project funding to EFN so that it can pilot, coordinate and publicise European Folk Day participation.   MusicAIRE is a European Music Council/Inova initiative with funds from the European Union – see more details of the programme awards here.

The EFN Board is now busy planning details of how the coordination and publicity will be managed – and will soon issue more information and a specific online contact point for everyone who wants to join to the celebration. 

The European Folk Day will be an opportunity for everyone – and not just EFN members but anyone who is involved in traditional music, dance and storytelling – to contribute whatever they want to this celebration. The aim of the European Folk Day is to do everything possible to raise the profile of folk arts across Europe and each of our own countries.

While EFN sets up a full-scale European Folk Day contact point, in the meantime questions and expressions of interest in the project can be emailed to EFN here.