Folk Singing Survey: A report into folk singing participation and organising in England

Access Folk is a research project exploring ways to increase and diversify participation in folk singing in England. Like many in the arts, the folk scene is facing hardship because the impacts of covid-19 and the current economic climate are affecting venues, organisers, amateur and professional singers and audience members alike. These issues, combined with the ageing of many of the scene’s key activists, raises questions about how the folk singing scene in England might develop over the coming decades. At University of Sheffield, a team of academic and community partners are looking into the current problems and testing potential solutions. The five-year project (2022-2027) hopes to prompt action to help increase accessibility to folk singing for more diverse populations in England.

This report presents findings from a large scale survey which gathered information from folk singers and organisers about their demographics and experiences of folk singing.

The survey was approved by the University of Sheffield ethical review process: 051380

All the available items arising from the project are available in the Access Folk Collection.