The Oxford Folk Festival - April 11th-13th 2025

The Oxford Folk Festival April 11th-13th 2025

What’s the same?

 •    We still love and are determined to share folk music and dance in all forms.
•    We are still entirely volunteer led, though glad to say that some of the people who rallied to help last year have stayed with us, so the band has grown.
•    We still get by with no external funding, and we are still determined that much of what is on offer will remain free to visitors – though any donations will be gratefully received.
•    We are still hugely grateful for the support we continue to get from the Covered Market and other Oxford institutions and businesses, especially in the provision of locations for our free performances.
    •    And of course there will still be lots of dancing in the streets!

What’s new?

Basically, there’s much more happening!

This year we have put on more ticketed events in the form of concerts and social dances. These events feature respected ‘names’ like Chris Wood (at the OFS, Saturday 12th April), Sally Barker on Friday evening, 11th April, at the Quakers’ Meeting Hall, and the National Youth Folk Ensemble, on the afternoon of 11th April, at the same venue. There are also concerts being held by Moonrakers with The Oakstone Trio at the OFS on Friday 11th, and by James McCafferty at St Michael’s, Cornmarket, on the afternoon of Saturday 12th.  At St Barnabas Church, a famous Oxford landmark, there will be ceilidhs in the evening with fine music from Banter on Friday and Trinculo on Saturday.  On Sunday afternoon, April 13th, there will be a workshop and bal at St Columba’s, Alfred St, for those wishing to learn more about the traditional dances of mainland Europe. (Full info here: https://folkinoxford.co.uk/oxford-folk-festival.html, and: https://linktr.ee/oxfordfolkfest).

Anyone who is in town during our festival weekend should be able to find wonderful music and dance with the many dance sides in the streets. Under cover, there will be ceilidhs, contra dancing and balfolk in the lovely St Barnabas and St Columba churches. For the part of our festival that is free to all, we have increased the number of performance areas and performers. There will also be live performances by musicians at key locations in the heart of the city throughout the weekend. The historic Covered Market remains the hub; here there will be music throughout the day from noon on Friday till 4.00pm on Sunday, including a special visit from Grenzenlos, a band from Oxford’s twin city, Bonn.  The Covered Market is the only host centre which will provide music at no cost to the visitor on all three days of the Festival. Also, on the evening of Saturday 12th April, the Covered Market, with Market Tap, will host the exciting young band Restless Oceans, https://restlessoceans.com/epk-restless-oceans-v2/, who are giving a free concert. Other key locations for free music are Common Ground, the Westgate Library, the Old Fire Station, St. Columba’s Church just off the High Street, the Bodleian Library and the Norrington Room in Blackwells. 

There will be music workshops for young people in Oxford’s Westgate Library and adults can choose from a variety of workshops that will be held in the Museum of Oxford. There will also be several open sessions for enthusiasts over the weekend.

A special pre-Festival concert will be held on the evening of Thursday,10th April, at Modern Art Oxford, the lovely gallery only a short walk from Carfax. Altogether, events for OFF’25 are being held in eleven prime central Oxford locations.