Associazione LocarnoFolk

The LocarnoFolk Association, based in Locarno, was founded in 2014 with the aim of spreading and promoting popular or folk-inspired music in the Canton of Ticino.

It all began in 2012 thanks to Barbara Knopf and Pietro Bianchi, who founded the LocarnoFOLK Festival, a summer event hosted in various locations in Locarno, including Piazza S. Antonio and for three years the Teatro Paravento.

In 2016 the festival moved to the evocative setting of Orselina Park, having in the meantime enriched itself with screenings, music and dance workshops.

Since 2015 the association has also proposed a season of concerts between winter and spring, dedicated to popular music in its various forms, even in a more modern guise: the LocarnoFOLK Events.

In 2017, the musical offer of this season as well as of the festival widened again when the association married popular dances and started to propose dance concerts as well.

The last edition of the festival took place in 2018. For mainly financial reasons, the future of the open-air summer event remains uncertain.

On the other hand, the association continues with the organisation of the LocarnoFOLK Events, now divided into two seasons (spring and autumn) of 3-5 concerts each. Dance or music workshops and didactic concerts can complete the musical proposals.

Today, ten years after the birth of the LocarnoFOLK Festival, the association wishes to increase the support of members and donors, united in a common passion and in the aim of consolidating and expanding the activities to promote folk music and dance in Ticino. Only with new forces, new ideas and new resources will it be possible to continue along the path taken a decade ago.

The LocarnoFolk Association Committee is currently composed as follows: Barbara Knopf, president; Mireille Ben, vice-president; Paola Bonetti, secretary; Ana Camponovo, cashier; Paola Bonetti, secretary.