Sidmouth Festival was founded as a
folk dance festival in 1955 by the
English Folk Dance and Song Society (EFDSS), but gradually expanded to cover
ceilidh dancing, music and song, as well as related folk crafts. Over time, the scope also broadened to include performers from abroad, and the festival was renamed the Sidmouth International Folklore Festival. From 1986, the festival was managed by Mrs Casey Music, who retitled it
Sidmouth International Festival. The festival grew to over 65,000 visitors a year. In 2004 the festival celebrated its 50th year. Derek Schofield's book,
The First Week in August – Fifty Years of the Sidmouth Festival, describing the history of the festival was published. 2004 was also the year in which Mrs Casey Music announced that they would no longer be running the festival. This was due to funding issues brought on in part by the 'rainy year' of 1997 which depleted much of the festival's financial reserves and in part by
East Devon District Council withdrawing funding. For several months, the future of the festival was uncertain, but the grass-roots folkie festival-goers wanted their Sidmouth festival to continue. Various groups of people, individuals and organisations began planning events for 2005 for their own particular aspect of the folk scene, and by November 2004 a steering group had been set up to co-ordinate and publicise these events under the new name of
Sidmouth Folk Week. The 2005 event was much smaller than Sidmouth International Festival, it did not use the Arena Showground owing to
financial risk involved, had fewer international performers and no season tickets. Nevertheless, it proved a resounding success, and so Sidmouth Folkweek was reborn. In 2005, Sidmouth FolkWeek Limited was registered as a charity with the object of promoting "... an annual festival of folk arts and other associated events." The festival's name was changed back to
Sidmouth Folk Festival in December 2018. In 2020 the festival was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. The festival returned in 2021 although there were no official dance displays. ==Some festival performers==