Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival 2026

Is being held at Campus West at the University of York.

Come and join us for the weekend of Friday 27th February to Sunday 1st March 2026 for an amazing weekend of dancing and music.

What is IVFDF???

Imagine an amazing ceilidh - like the one you went to around Burns night - now make it 100 times better and make it last the whole weekend. The Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival is a full weekend of ceilidhs, contras (the American equivalent of a ceilidh), Bal (the continental version of a ceilidh), Scottish Country dance (a prettier ceilidh with a distinctive, Scottish way of combining the figures) and Playford (ceilidh à la Jane Austin). Then add in a mix of workshops from Appalachian to Zesty Playford, from Balloon Modelling to Clog, and you've got one wonderful weekend.

IVFDF stands for 'Inter Varsity Folk Dance Festival' it is an exciting and dynamic festival held at a different university each year. IVFDF has been running since 1951 and is the country's longest continually running folk festival. The tour so far spans over 20 locations as far apart as Exeter in the south and Aberdeen in the north. You don't have to be a student to go, just vaguely young or energetic. The Festival is particularly aimed at students, but it is open to everyone and caters for a wide range of ages and interests with numerous ceilidhs and workshops covering a wide range of dance styles - Scottish Country, Highland, Morris, Rapper Sword, Irish, and Playford are typical examples, with plenty of more exotic workshops varying from year to year.

See more information about the history of IVFDF on the main IVFDF website

Latest News

Call for Workshop leaders

We are looking for a wide range of workshops to spread the joy of all folk traditions to all attendees! Please sign up using this short Google form if you have a workshop you would like to offer, whether it be dance, song, tunes, storytelling or anything else - no matter how wacky! We look forward to you being a part of this wonderful festival!

Feel free to send us a message if you have any questions.

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Morris Tour Sign-up

Goose promoting the morris tour sign-up The Morris tour for IVFDF 2026 will be proudly hosted by Ramshackle Morris, and will take place on Saturday 28th February in various locations around York from approximately 10:30am-4pm (subject to change).

Please fill in this form - if you would like your team to dance this event, one form per team.

We look forward to welcoming you to our beautiful city!

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Announce

We are happy to announce that IVFDF 2026 will be happening at the University of York between Friday 27th February to Sunday 1st March 2026.

Keep following this website and our social media pages for more information and news.

While we’re very excited to host again so soon, please bear with us - with us being the back-up location for IVFDF this year, there are some complications, especially since we’ve essentially been given about half a year to prepare (as opposed to sometimes two years).

Most notably, as a result of tightening University/SU safety policies and a crackdown on “things that aren’t supposed to be sleeping venues”, we say with huge disappointment that, despite our efforts, it’s currently looking likely we will not be able to offer indoor camping to anyone who isn’t “a student at any University”. This is very difficult for us since we love the inherent accessibility, affordability and student-focus IVFDF is built around. The fact is, since the event is being held in connection to the UoY Folk Society, University/SU policies will apply regardless of where things are being held, including off-campus. This isn’t a lack of willing co-operation from them, so much as the fact that they’ve run into problems at similar intervarsity sporting events held on our campus and were told off. We’ll see what we can do about this, but to be on the safe side please look into alternative arrangements.

We apologise for the many complications this year, but hope this transparency will help. There will be an IVFDF this year, and the SU and Uni logistics teams are enthusiastic about it and keen to help things happen and run smoothly! Thank you for your understanding and good humor - we’ll update you again with further information when we can, but until then we’re excited to see you in February!

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