New Jersey Folk Festival Marks 50 Years
Thousands of people gathered for music, crafts, and gardening activities at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park in Middlesex County.
Sunday, August 24, 2025
The New Jersey Folk Festival celebrated its 50th anniversary on Saturday with a full day of music, hands-on activities, and outdoor learning.
Thousands turned out for the milestone event, held under clear skies and warm summer sun. Organizers tout the festival as the oldest continuously run folk festival in the the state. This year’s theme, “50th Anniversary – Celebrating New Jersey,” paid tribute to the state’s diverse folk traditions and decades of community storytelling, crafts, and cultural preservation.
Rutgers professor Angus Kress Gillespie founded the annual event in 1975, in part as a way to offer students leadership and management experience. Rutgers University traditionally hosted the festival on Cook Campus during Rutgers Day in April. This year, inclement weather forced organizers to postpone the event until August 23. The location also shifted to Davidson’s Mill Pond Park, a scenic setting known for its meadows, walking trails, and public gardens.
The festival’s mission is to preserve and protect the music, culture, and arts of New Jersey. Performances took place on three dedicated stages. Live music and dance acts ran throughout the day, with attendees moving between tents and shaded seating areas.
Festivalgoers make their way through the Rutgers Cooperative Extension gardens during the 50th New Jersey Folk Festival at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park. (The Central Jerseyan)
Rutgers Cooperative Extension continues to play a major role in the event. Davidson’s Mill Pond Park hosts the EARTH Center, headquarters for the university’s agricultural outreach wing and home to the Rutgers Master Gardeners Program. Families gravitated toward the site’s gardens and educational exhibits, making this one of the most popular family-friendly events in New Jersey this summer.
Visitors could walk through the park’s permanent butterfly garden, an enclosed house where butterflies moved among native plants. Nearby, the Native Plant Teaching Nursery and Vegetable Demonstration Garden offered a glimpse of Central Jersey flora, including tomatoes, sunflowers, and pollinator-friendly herbs.
Children and families took part in garden activities for kids, including the Paint-a-Pot Station, where Rutgers Master Gardeners guided flowerpot decorating. Other attractions open year-round include the Circle of Thyme Herb Garden and the Children’s Garden. The park also hosts Rows for the Hungry, a two-acre produce garden that runs on donations and has yielded more than 95,000 pounds of food since its inception.
A breast cancer awareness garden at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park features pink blossoms and a handmade sign reading “Grow Pink for Breast Cancer Awareness.” (The Central Jerseyan)
At the center of the festival grounds, a cluster of food trucks served hungry visitors. Options ranged from ribs and brisket to pierogi and fresh-squeezed drinks. Nearby, the NJ Folk Fest Welcome Tent distributed printed maps and performance schedules.
A short walk west brought attendees to the NJ Folk Heritage Area, where artisans gave live demonstrations of traditional crafts. A Vintage Cricket Demonstration nearby offered a look at rural New Jersey’s sporting past. Wagon rides pulled by a blue tractor circled the park, and naturalists led guided nature walks from the Forest Tours Trailhead.
The festival is now managed by the nonprofit New Jersey Folk Festival board, in partnership with the Rutgers Collaborative Center for Community Engagement. Though it began as a student project, it now draws support from alumni, nonprofit staff, and community volunteers.
Many of those volunteers arrived at dawn to assist with set-up and breakdown, logistics, and crowd guidance across the large venue.
The 2025 festival was part of FolkLIVE, a live concert series funded by Middlesex County. The program aims to expand access to local cultural programming across the region.
As the festival’s 50th year came to a close, visitors departed with hands full of art, soil, food, and flyers, and with a clearer sense of the traditions that continue to shape the Garden State.
Scroll below to see more of the New Jersey Folk Festival events and features at Davidson’s Mill Pond Park.
