New Jersey Folk Festival
Live Local Musicians, Crafters, Folklorists, Folklife Demonstrations, Children's Activities, Jam Tent & Food!50th Anniversary
April 26th, 2025
10am – 4pm
Passion Puddle – Cook Campus – Rutgers University – New Brunswick, NJ
Connect with the Festival! #njff50
2025 Lineup
Activities
We're Looking for Volunteers
We are currently seeking volunteers! We need volunteers for many tasks throughout the day, including helping with Photo and Video documentation, facilitating our Culture Tent, Main Stage, and Artist Check-in, and especially during set-up and breakdown. We rely on volunteers to help the festival run smoothly! Volunteers are needed from 7 am through 5 pm. Students, parents, seniors, faculty, staff, artists, and community members can all be part of our volunteer team.
Our Sponsors
We want to thank our generous sponsors for making this event possible, and for showing their commitment to the community and the NJFF.
Sponsor Application
Donations
We want to thank our generous sponsors for making this event possible, and for showing their commitment to the community and the NJFF.Donations
NJFF History
The mission of the New Jersey Folk Festival is to preserve and protect the music, culture, and arts of New Jersey. Therefore, the main focus of this festival is the traditional music, crafts, and foods of the diverse ethnic and cultural communities within the state and its surrounding region.
The New Jersey Folk Festival is a free, family-friendly event held annually on the last Saturday in April from 10am – 4pm, rain or shine. It coincides with Rutgers Agricultural Field Day held on the adjacent Cook Campus as part of Rutgers Day. Traditionally held on the Great Lawn at the Woodlawn mansion, home to the Eagleton Institute of Politics, in 2024 it moved to the grass fielf in the vicinity of Passion Puddle and Lipman Hall.
Established in 1975, the New Jersey Folk Festival is the oldest continuously run folk festival in the State of New Jersey. Managed by a small team of non-profit staff members and volunteers, the festival attracts over 15,000 people and is one of the City of New Brunswick’s largest regularly scheduled events.
Typically, the event features three to four stages of music, dance, and workshops, a juried craft market, a children’s activities area, a delicious array of food choices that offers everything from hamburgers, vegetarian fare, and funnel cakes to a wide variety of ethnic foods, a folk marketplace, and a heritage area which offers a close-up look at each year’s cultural or geographical theme or other appropriate exhibits.
The New Jersey Folk Festival, Inc. is also a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the State of New Jersey exempt from federal taxation. The Collaborative Center for Community Engagement at Rutgers University is the presenting sponsor of the New Jersey Folk Festival.
Festival Location
The 2025 New Jersey Folk Festival will be located on the Southwest side of Passion Puddle on the Cook Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. The closest GPS address to the festival grounds is 88 Lipman Drive – New Brunswick, NJ 08901 (aka Martin Hall).
Please Note: The New Jersey Folk Festival is a part of Rutgers Day, a campus-wide event spanning New Brunswick and Piscataway. As such, many roads, including Lipman Drive and Red Oak Lane are CLOSED to vehicular traffic to allow for pedestrian travel.
Parking
Rutgers University parking lots are free and open to the public for all New Jersey Folk Festival and Rutgers Day attendees but please make sure that you are parked in a marked parking stall and not blocking and fire lanes, crosswalks or fire hydrants. Additionally, the Rutgers University bus system will be operating for free should you wish to travel to additional campuses for other Rutgers Day activities. For additional information regarding Rutgers Day information, parking, or shuttles, consult the Rutgers Day FAQs.