2022 Performer Application
The National Folk Festival presents the nation’s finest traditional artists from across the nation representing a broad array of America’s cultural communities. The National also strives to showcase the traditions of cultural communities historically identified with the host city, state or region, as well as the arts of newer immigrant communities that are contributing to the state’s cultural landscape.
What exactly is folk?
From a musical perspective, the Festival will include everything from blues, rockabilly, gospel, klezmer, jazz, bluegrass, breakdance, cowboy, polka, tamburitza, old-time, and mariachi to western swing, honky-tonk, beat box, rhythm and blues, and zydeco, as well as traditional music and dance from Cajun, Native American, Celtic, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Asian, Appalachian, Latin American, African and Pacific Islander cultures. Over three days, audiences will have the chance to see hundreds of artists representing cultural traditions from throughout Maryland, the nation and the world.
Selection Criteria
Quality and authenticity are the primary selection criteria for artists. The Festival’s approach to programming focuses on presenting arts passed on through time in families and communities and in tribal, ethnic, religious, regional, and occupational groups. We present artists who are firmly rooted in the community from which their music derives, rather than “interpreters” of tradition, such as contemporary singer-songwriters or “revivalist” performance groups—no matter how accomplished. The Festival strives to be inclusive in terms of race, ethnicity, and region.
Most importantly, all applicants are held to the same standards. The selection of festival participants is guided by the definition of folk and traditional arts established by the National Endowment for the Arts:
Definition of “folk and traditional arts”
The folk and traditional arts are rooted in and reflective of the cultural life of a community. Community members may share a common ethnic heritage, cultural mores, language, religion, occupation, or geographic region. These vital and constantly reinvigorated artistic traditions are shaped by values and standards of excellence that are passed from generation to generation, most often within family and community, through demonstration, conversation, and practice. Genres of artistic activity include, but are not limited to, music, dance, crafts, and oral expression.
Source: National Endowment for the Arts
