Join us for the 16th annual Oly Old Time Festival, Feb. 12-15, 2026
The Olympia Old Time Festival (Olympia, Washington) is an annual music event dedicated to teaching, learning and participating in the tradition of old-time music. Artists from around the U.S. and Canada come to play concerts, jam, call dances and teach workshops in this beloved event well-known in the national Old Time Music scene. The festival began in 2008 as a grassroots passion project and in 2016 became a program of Arbutus Folk School.
We open with a jam at a downtown restaurant/brewery on Thursday night, run concurrent workshops during the day and concerts/dances at night on Friday and Saturday, and end on Sunday afternoon. Events for this festival unfold at multiple locations: Arbutus Folk School downtown and the South Bay Grange.
We offer amazing concerts and performances, entertaining and exciting old-time traditional dances, and hands-on workshops that cover a wide variety of musical instruments, singing styles, traditional crafts and dances. Old-time music is highly participatory, with most fans participating in dances to the music and usually are musicians themselves.
The opportunity to learn from, jam with and dance to music from well-known national artists is a key feature of the festival. Free daytime workshops cover topics like clawhammer banjo, fiddle tunes in two keys, hambone (body percussion), make a crankie, two-step and waltz Cajun dancing, and clogging, all led by festival artists in addition to their nighttime performances and all-weekend jams.
Join us for our next festival on Presidents Day weekend, Feb. 13-15, 2026!
