The New Jersey Folk Festival usually takes place on the last Saturday of April at the Eagleton Institute Woodlawn (at 191 Ryders Lane, on the corner of George Street and Ryders Lane, Douglass Campus), Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. A large-scale family-friendly folk festival is focused on indigenous culture and multicultural folk forms in the state of New Jersey. It features folk music, crafts, and other traditions, showcasing folk artists who grew up in the tradition in which they perform and who have acquired their skills through a community or a family on a daily basis. The festival draws about 18,000 attendees every year.
The Festival runs from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is free to attend. It was founded on 25 April 1975 to celebrate the multicultural and folklife of New Jersey by undergraduate students at Rutgers University under the guidance of the American Studies Department. It is the only such festival managed entirely by undergraduates as a result of an academic course for credits. The festival is supported financially by county or state arts grants, student organizational donations, and vendors fees.
