Since 1980 the California Traditional Music Society has hosted an annual folk music festival celebrating music, dance and
storytelling scheduled on or near the Summer Solstice. Each year we try to make the coming Summer Solstice Folk Music, Dance and
Storytelling Festival better than the last. The 23rd Annual Festival will be held June 24-26, 2005 at Soka University of America,
in Calabasas CA. Details of the Festival will be released around the first of the year. Click here to see
who was at the 2004 festival and the schedule of events.
The CTMS Summer Solstice Festival is unlike most other folk music
gatherings. In addition to concerts, jam sessions, and story swaps,
the CTMS Festival is a "teaching festival". Musicians, dancers,
singers and storytellers from all over the world come to share
their knowledge and experience. You will find classes on everything
from playing fiddle to vocal warm-ups to contra-dancing and more!
 The
CTMS Solstice Festival was first held in 1980 in Greystone Park
at the Greystone
Mansion in Beverly Hills. This Tudor-style mansion was built
by famed oil-tycoon Edward Doheny in 1928 as a gift to his son
and has over 46,000 square feet of living space. The Greystone
Mansion provided a wonderful location for the festival for five
years.
From 1986 to 1990 the CTMS Solstice Festival was held at the
campus of California State University,
Northridge (CSUN). Then it moved to the campus of Soka
University of America in 1991, where it is held today.
 The
annual Summer Solstice Festival is the largest teaching-oriented
gathering of its kind in the nation. Held in June, it attracts
over 5,000 individuals, families, and friends for a weekend of "hands
on" workshops where skills, repertoire and technique are taught.
In addition there are jam sessions, master classes, performances
and over 300 scheduled events.
The audience comes from all over Los Angeles County, the state
of California, the United States and Canada. The Festival employs
100 Folk Music artists and has over 350 local volunteers during
the weekend. It takes 18 months to plan and execute each Festival,
with over 10,000 hours of volunteer labor. It is a massive undertaking,
a logistic operation with incredible artistic achievement, known
for excellence throughout the world.
Many of the volunteers have been with CTMS for over 20 years,
and now their families are included in the volunteer roster. This
premier family Folk Music event includes 25 mini-festivals going
on concurrently. For those who wish to simply sit and listen, the
Festival is filled with three exciting performance stages.
 Because
of the abysmal cutbacks in public education, the Festival is an
opportunity for most children to learn about the Folk Music and
songs of America or any other cultures. The Festival is a vehicle
for hands-on exposure to multicultural Folk Music and dance available
in the region. In 1992, CTMS inaugurated a special children's area
that offered youngsters the chance to explore introductory guitar,
folk singing and dancing, storytelling and workshops on making
instruments from recycled materials. CTMS obtains numerous loaner
instruments so that children can touch and try unfamiliar instruments
and learn about Folk Music by actually playing.
 These
newer programs augment the Festival's family-friendly atmosphere,
where children are invited to participate in all events ( Please
Note: Children under 12 are admitted to the Festival for free and
all of the Festival facilities are handicapped accessible ).
Workshops are designed for family involvement so that children,
teenagers, and parents can participate together. This is rare in
modern America, where families are normally divided in their artistic
preferences and what they like to do in their leisure time.
The Festival reaches hundreds of thousands through extensive
media support. For several years, KCSN broadcast the Festival live
for two full days. KPFK, KNJO, KRLA, and KCRW schedule feature
stories, interviews with many of the featured concert artists,
and live broadcasts of performances. CBS, NBC, and ABC have provided
television coverage. In addition, many radio stations throughout
the state broadcast portions of the Festival concerts and interviews.
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