About the Festival

The Iranian Folk Music Festival can be considered as the most widely held and the most important music festival in Iran. The presence of the best musicians with various ethnicities such as Kurd, Turk, Arab, ‌Baloch, etc. together with many original music performances coming from each ethnicity’s distinctive history and background gives this festival a unique diversity and also represents the unity of different ethnic groups with different languages, dialects, and cultures in Iran.
Preserving the originality of different Iranian ethnical music and familiarizing the young generation of Iran and the world with this rich heritage are the main objectives of this festival. The Iranian Folk Music Festival is held annually in Kerman, a historic city with rich culture, historic monuments, unique pristine nature, and hospitable people, which adds to this festival’s attraction. The historic sites provide the festival with exclusive spaces for music performances.
This festival, on its 12th round, is on 7-10 November 2019 and hosts about 200 musicians, both singers and players, with their solo and ensemble performances from all around Iran. The festival also includes research-based meetings and research based concerts by both Iranian and foreign ethnomusicologists.