Three days of music. Seven stages. 50 sponsors. And 1,500 volunteers.
The Richmond Folk Festival is a mash-up of talent, skills, and collaboration. It’s what Lisa Sims, deputy director of Venture Richmond, calls “the“ ultimate community creation that would simply not exist without collective action and collaboration.”

Sims says that setting up the Richmond Folk Festival takes two weeks and an additional week to tear-down. But before this can even begin, a full local programming group is tasked with selecting an incredibly diverse line-up of artists. Meanwhile, the Children’s Museum of Richmond produces the Family Area. The Virginia Foundation for the Humanities’ Virginia Folklife Program produces the Folklife Area. And the bucket brigade typically collects nearly $100,000 during the event via their “make a drop in the bucket” efforts.

“It is truly a community project that reflects and celebrates the RVA community,” explains Sims.

Despite the three days of rain experienced during this year’s event, the Richmond
Folk Festival did not disappoint RVA.

“It was wet, muddy, and messy. But 100,000 people came,” reports Sims, who says that festival goers still managed to place $70,000 in the donation buckets. “It’s our highest per capita donation ever. Stage audiences were brimming. Food vendors were happy. Attendees were happy.” She adds, “In the galoshes and slickers, they came out and loved it.”

Since the event, Sims and the staff at Venture Richmond have received a steady flow of post-festival emails thanking them for one of the best festivals ever—and from artists thrilled with the warm receptions they received on stage. “What we saw was real love, real passion for this amazing event. We couldn’t be more grateful.”