‘What the Folk?’ Museum of the Home Presents a New Festival Exploring and Celebrating Urban Folk Culture, Art and Craft
This June, the Museum of the Home in East London invites you to step through its doors for a vibrant celebration of the traditions that bind us. As the city warms to the height of summer, the museum will debut an inspiring new festival dedicated to urban folk culture.
From 13–21 June 2026, this nine-day festival will undoubtedly transcend the typical gallery experience, offering an expansive and inclusive deep dive into the living, breathing world of folklore. Far from being a relic of the past, the festival reimagines folk as a contemporary pulse, explored through a curated program of pioneering art, traditional craft, and thought-provoking discourse. The festival sets out to explore, consider and celebrate folk traditions, the stories they’ve told through time, and the practices that are woven through our homes, cultures and landscapes.
Through a rich and varied programme of storytelling, performance, and visual media, ‘What the Folk?’ will address the many varied dimensions of folk culture, including the meaning of folklore in urban and transient contexts such as London.
From a cello recital taking a round-the-world tour of folk music, traditions to a Jabberwocky-inspired embroidery workshop with The Fabled Thread, a foray into the uncanny side of ’80s and ’90s children’s TV to a lesson in talking to trees, the festival will explore every corner of folk’s eclectic influence on society, arts and domestic culture and ask- What does folk mean in an urban context today?
‘What the Folk?’ culminates on summer solstice, Sunday 21 June, with a Family Day of activitie for all ages and special music.
Tickets are available now – you can book via the Museum of the Home website here.
