Oly Old-Time Festival

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!