FINDING FOLKLORE: What will you discover at the famous Broadstairs Folk Week 2026?
For one week every August, the town welcomes folk traditions
On the edge of the sea, where the Kent coast opens into light and gulls and long summer evenings, Broadstairs Folk Week arrives like a story that refuses to stay on the stage.
For one week every August, the town seems to slip slightly out of ordinary time. You step off the train and the air is already different: fiddles threading through alleyways, drums echoing from Viking Bay, laughter spilling out of pubs that have turned into impromptu concert halls. And then there are the hooden horses - half folklore, half mischief - appearing without warning to thunder through the streets, pursued by children who are either delighted or deeply suspicious.
At the centre of it all is Clarence the Dragon, waking only once a year as if the town itself has dreamed it into being. Hats go missing. Bells jingle where they shouldn’t. Nothing behaves quite as expected.
But the magic is not only in the folklore - it’s in how it all gathers together. One night, you find yourself swept into the raw energy of Jethro Tull’s Martin Barre, or Elephant Sessions at the Pavilion, the crowd moving like a single pulse above the sea. The next morning, everything softens: a quiet church, a single voice like Katie Spencer holding the room so still, it feels like time has paused.
Across the week, legends and storytellers appear - Eliza Carthy, The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Martin Simpson Trio, Bridget St John and Suntou Susso, alongside new voices like Michael McGovern, each carrying songs that feel less performed than discovered.
DATE: 7th-14th, August
INFO: www.broadstairsfolkweek.org.uk
INSTA: @broadstairsfolkweek
