Wimborne MinsterFolk 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 1979/82 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 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 70,000 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 , a mockumentary about morris dancing, were filmed at the festival. 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. In 2018, there were over 60 dance teams attending and it is estimated that 70,000 people came in to Wimborne for the festival. Through a number of committee changes, the festival still continues to grow thanks to the hard work of volunteers, the support of local businesses, councils and our audience. The 2020 Festival will be from 12 to 14 June 2020.
History
1979 – Saturday 18 August – One day, one off event called "Wimborne Country Festival" 1980/81 - No events 1982 – "Wimborne Country Folk Festival" 11-13 June. Since then it has taken place every year. 1984 – a press report refers to this being the 3rd year 1992 - a press interview with Brian Bisp refers to this being the 11th year 2010 - held from 11 to 13 June 2010, attracted 45 dance sides and an estimated crowd of 20,000 people. The 2019 Festival was from 6 to 9 June 2019.
