The Acadia Festival of Traditional Music & Dance is dedicated to promoting appreciation of traditional music and dance through a week-long summer festival composed of intensive classes, workshops, concerts and dances. The festival’s goal is to build community, celebrate artists, build bridges between cultures and carry forward traditions of Acadian, Cape Breton, Irish, Quebecois, Scottish and other origins for future generations.
Donations to Acadia Trad Festival through Fractured Atlas support need-based tuition scholarships for prospective students. Participants of all ability levels and ages are eligible to apply for tuition support. This assistance is funded exclusively by generous donations from our community, and over 100 students have benefited from this program since its inception.
Contributions can also be made to our "Artistic Work Study Students" or "Artists in Residence" programs through dedicated campaigns we run annually.
The festival aims to draw from the very best faculty and performers of trad music in the U.S., Canada and beyond, including instructors of all five “core genres” (Acadian, Cape Breton, Irish, Quebecois, Scottish) as well as featured adjacent genres. Our flagship intensive program offers unparalleled instruction in Fiddle, Dance, Piano, Guitar, Flute, Song and much more. We strive to include both master tradition bearers and up-and-coming artists, all of whom will engage and inspire students in small classroom settings. We are committed to including participants of different racial, ethnic and cultural backgrounds and students of all generations and ability levels.
It's not just the tunes, the dancing, the musicians or the traditions - it's the "magic" that happens when we put it all together. Young students learn from master tradition bearers, then bring their own unique gifts to the endeavor - thus the traditions are learned, celebrated and they evolve. The traditions are alive!
Learn More: https://acadiatradfestival.org/