FAI Announces 50K in Artist Scholarships Available
FAI also announced Official Showcase Artist Scholarships as a pilot program, with a $50,000 fund to help cover travel, lodging, and registration costs. It is based on financial need, the artist must be an FAI member. Applications will open in August and be due September 5, 2025.
Artists will be notified on August 1 and the Official Showcase Artists will be announced September 8. FAI has previously shared other future locations for the conference, including Chicago (2027), Kansas City (2028), New Orleans (2030 and 2032), and Canada (city TBD, 2031).
From hundreds of applicants, approximately 160 Official Showcase Artists are chosen to perform on the conference’s largest stages to crowds of agents, DJs, promoters, labels, venues, organizations, and more. These jury-selected, tour-ready musicians represent diverse cultures, languages, and sound.
Each Official Showcase is a short set performed on a full production stage.
FAI’s 37th annual conference featured over one hundred and seventy-five artists officially showcasing, representing thirty-eight countries of origin, nineteen U.S. states, and all thirteen Canadian provinces, one of the larger slates of showcases in the conference’s history. The conference was held at Montréal’s Sheraton Hotel.
“We’re excited to welcome Folk Alliance International back to Louisiana in 2026 and for years to come, strengthening our ongoing partnership. With its vibrant and diverse music culture, New Orleans is the ideal destination,” said Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, State of Louisiana.
“We are thrilled to return to New Orleans, travel to Chicago, come home to Kansas City, and head back to Canada. Louisiana is so rich with folklife. Our conference in 2020 was so special. We are grateful to New Orleans and Company, the New Orleans Tourism and Cultural Fund, the Louisiana Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism, local board members Reid Wick and Ashley Shabankareh, and our members in the region for welcoming us back to the Crescent City three times over the next decade,” said Folk Alliance International Executive Director Jennifer Roe.
“We’re thrilled that Folk Alliance International is planning to return to Louisiana in 2026, and we look forward to further strengthening this invaluable partnership. With its rich musical heritage and vibrant creative economy, New Orleans is a true source of inspiration—an ideal destination for the folk music community to connect, collaborate, and celebrate,” said Lacey Chataignier, Louisiana Music Officer Department of Culture, Recreation & Tourism
More About the Conference
The Annual Folk Alliance International Conference is the largest gathering of folk musicians and music industry professionals in the world. This is an experience like no other. Music is around every corner. Legends, rising stars, and industry innovators share career-boosting insights.
An international crowd of artists, venues, labels, DJs, agents, and organizations come together for five days of professional development, networking, and music.
The keynote address features an influential figure in the folk music industry who inspires us and shapes the narrative of the conference – in ways unexpected and magical. The Keynote Speaker for FAI 2026 has yet to be revealed.
Multi-day programming consisting of panels, workshops, presentations, summits, and networking sessions bringing together thought leaders, policymakers, industry experts, and artists to create meaningful dialogue benefitting the international folk music community.
Official Showcases highlight the best folk music in the world across a vast variety of genres. Over 150 jury-selected artists perform on the largest stages of our conference to an audience of venue bookers, agents, record labels, DJs, media companies, and more.
The crowd-favorite of every FAI Conference, Private Showcases give everyone an opportunity to perform. Late at night, hotel guest rooms transform into small stages with hundreds of performances hosted by different organizations.
FAI gratefully acknowledge that the 2025 conference is taking place in New Orleans, on unceded Indigenous land of the Atakapa, Caddo, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Natchez, and Tunica Nations, among others. From New Orleans Museum of Art:
The area we now call New Orleans, also known as Bulbancha, a term from the Choctaw language meaning ‘place of many tongues’, holds a rich history. It is a land that has been traversed by the descendants of the Atakapa, Caddo, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Houma, Natchez, and Tunica Nations. Folk Alliance is committed to the ethos of folk by creating a welcoming and inclusive space for all. We actively invite participation from historically marginalized, disenfranchised, and underrepresented communities.
About Folk Alliance International
Founded in 1989, and governed by a 21-member board of directors, Folk Alliance International (FAI) is the world’s largest membership organization for the folk music industry and community. Its mission is to serve, strengthen, and engage the global folk music community through preservation, presentation, and promotion.
FAI values diversity, equity, inclusion, and access, is committed to gender parity in all its programming, celebrates multiple languages and cultures, and actively welcomes participation from marginalized, disenfranchised, and underrepresented communities.
FAI defines folk broadly as “the music of the people” (reflective of any community they are from), and programs a diverse array of sub-genres including, but not limited to Appalachian, Americana, Blues, Bluegrass, Celtic, Cajun, Global Roots, Hip-Hop, Old-Time, Singer-Songwriter, Spoken Word, Traditional, Zydeco, and various fusions.
