Folklorama was first held in August 1970, as a Centennial Folk Festival sponsored jointly by the City of Winnipeg and the Folk Arts Council of Manitoba. It was originally intended to be a one-time occurrence in celebration of Manitoba's
centennial. It was deemed such a success that it became an annual event. The first festival was only a week long, featuring 21 different cultures. The Africa/Caribbean, Greek, Indian, Polish, Portuguese, and Ukrainian pavilions were the festival's original six pavilions; The festival adopted its current two-week format in 1988, with half of the pavilions open in each week. The Folklorama logo was designed by Winnipeg graphic designer Andy Stout who won the provincial logo contest in 1980. The four figures in the logo represent people from the four corners of the globe. The four united figures are intertwined, with arms raised in celebration. The four colours of the figures represent the four colours of human beings: white, brown, yellow, and red. Since white cannot be printed, the colour blue (cyan) is used as a substitute. The festival's mascot, the Folklorama Llama, was created in 1986. The queen would be in the running for the Miss Folklorama pageant at the closing ceremony of the Festival. The Miss Folklorama pageant was not a beauty pageant but a "contest of ethnic preservation and presentation", as the pavilion queens were scored based on 40% knowledge of culture and country, 40% on participation and 20% on poise and personality. Since 1990, pavilions now feature two adult ambassadors and two youth ambassadors, neither of whom must be of a specific gender. The 50th edition of the Folklorama festival was in 2019. There were 22 pavilions in the first week including: African, Argentina "Tango", Budapest-Hungaria, Caribbean, Celtic Ireland, Chile, Egyptian, El Salvador, Ethiopian, First Nations, German, Greek, India, Israel "Shalom Square", Korean, España-Spain, Portugal, Scandinavian, Serbian/Beograd, Slovenija, Ukraine "Spirt of the Ukraine", and the United Kingdom. There were 23 pavilions in the second week, including: Africa/Caribbean, Brazilian, Canadien-Français, Chilean, Chinese, Croatian "Zagreb", Hungary-Pannonia, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Métis, Mexican, Scotland, Philippines "Pearl of the Orient", Portuguese "Casa do Minho", Polish, Punjab, Romanian, Russian, Serbian "Kolo", South Sudanese, Tamil, and Ukraine-Kyiv. Folklorama was cancelled in 2020 and 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, but resumed in 2022 with 24 pavilions and a 14% increase in attendance over 2019. In 2023, the number of pavilions offered increased to 40. ==Program areas==