Essex Folk Association

Who are we?
We are an association of individuals and clubs; dancers, singers, musicians, story tellers, artisans, performance venues and anybody who is interested in watching, listening, staging or taking part in any of the folk arts. Everybody is welcome, so come and join us and have some fun.

Where do we operate?
We have members from all over Essex and well beyond the county boundaries into East Anglia, North-East London and even into Kent.
We also promote and display information from like-minded organisations that may not be members of EFA.

What are the Folk Arts?
Folk Arts represent the history of cultural life within our community. These can be tangible objects which are crafted in traditional ways or intangible knowledge and skills, such as music, dancing and story telling. Folk Arts convey a community’s cultural identity, rather than an individual or idiosyncratic artistic identity.

In it’s simplest sense, the term ‘folk’ simply means something believed or transmitted by the ordinary people; not necessarily academically correct or rigorous. So a ‘folk art’ can be any art form pertaining to the inhabitants of a land, their culture, tradition, or history.

The folk arts that we promote are not exclusively rooted in English culture. Some have been brought to England by communities who have come and settled here.