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Midway Directory · By type

Music festivals

A recurring festival whose main programme is music: folk, jazz, blues, country, roots, electronic or classical, over one or more days.

A music festival is a recurring event whose main programme is music: jazz, folk, country, roots, rock or electronic, over one or more days. The modern outdoor festival is usually dated to Newport, Rhode Island, in 1954; Vancouver’s folk festival followed in 1978. Most bring food, vendors and a market alongside the stages.

What it is

A music festival is built around stages and a line-up, but the grounds between the stages are a promenade of their own: food, artisans, a kids’ area, merchandise, sometimes a few rides.

History, era by era

1954
The first Newport Jazz Festival, billed as the First Annual American Jazz Festival, was held at the Newport Casino on July 17 and 18, 1954. About 13,000 people came.1
1955
The festival moved to a bigger ground, Freebody Park, in 1955.1
1969
Woodstock was not the first music festival, but it became the yardstick other festivals measured themselves by.2
1978
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival was founded in 1978 in Stanley Park and moved to Jericho Beach Park in its second year.3
Today
Festivals such as Glastonbury have become family affairs, with grandparents, parents and children attending together.2

The midway connection

Between sets, a festival crowd walks: to food, to the artisans’ row, to the kids’ area. Vancouver’s folk festival describes its weekend as music plus dancing, food and children’s activities.3

Wherever people walk a row of booths, the midway is there in some form: the full kind, with rides, games of skill and food joints, or the quieter kind, with craft tables, home baking and a booth like ours. That walk, with family and friends and something to look at every few steps, is what this directory is about.

One fact worth knowing

Questions people ask

What was the first music festival?

Newport Jazz in 1954 is usually named as the first modern outdoor festival, though music festivals in some form are much older.12

When did the Vancouver Folk Music Festival start?

In 1978, in Stanley Park; it moved to Jericho Beach in its second year.3

Sources

  1. What's Up Newp: On this day in Newport history: first Newport Jazz Festival held. Read on · news
  2. uDiscover Music: From Newport to Woodstock: the real history of music festivals. Read on · news
  3. Vancouver Folk Music Festival: About. Read on · official

Short listings from the census

Checked and sourced, but without a full page yet. Each one links to its row on its province or state page.

The Midway Mailbag

New listings as they arrive. Notes on new listings.

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Written by The Midway Machine. Last checked 2026-10-21.

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