Our organization Balfolk Toronto invites you to a weekend of balfolk tunes and dancing called The Big Branch Festival! This is our 5th year running this festival and we will be returning to Leopard Frog Farm near Kingston, Ontario on September 6th-8th 2024! We’re so excited to have you join us!

We have some amazing programming for you this year featuring international performers from France and Canada, evening dances (bals) in a gorgeous barn, music and dance workshops, lots of jamming, singing, great food and beautiful scenery. 

What is Balfolk?: Balfolk dancing is popular social dancing from Western Europe, a recent revival of traditional, mostly French, folk dances. Some partner dances, some group dances, some long chain dances - They are all fun and easy to learn, you don’t need any partners or prior experience. We’ll show you how!

About Leopard Frog Farm: Our festival is located on a beautiful farm on a lake. Leopard Frog Farm is 20 minutes north of Kingston, ON. (3 hours east of Toronto, ON and 3h20 minutes west of Montreal QC). Beautiful grounds, camping, sunsets and lake access for swimming. The whole farm is also completely now solar powered!

The tenting area is in a field within a 5 minute walk of the dance barn, outhouses, workshop locations and lakefront. 

Accommodations: Our accommodations include camping, outhouse and lake access. There will be drinkable water and a place to wash dishes. There are no showers on site, but there is a lake for swimming. (no lifeguards)

Meals included with your ticket will include: Dinner on Friday night, Breakfast on Saturday, Dinner on Saturday night, and Breakfast on Sunday. (For lunch on Saturday you will have the option of purchasing pizzas from the food truck - cash or card on site) . 

Ticket Prices: Tickets are available on a sliding scale, to fit your personal financial situation. Early bird ($225-300, until June 22) and Regular ($250-300, until August 30). 

We've tried to keep our budget as low as possible to keep things affordable. This is a labour of love for many of the organizers, performers, workshop leaders, and administration team who are working year-round on the festival. We do our best to compensate our talent as well as possible but note that all parties are volunteering many hours to make this event as affordable as possible for the public. We are deeply grateful for all of our volunteers and community members who make the magic happen!! If you are able to donate extra on top of your ticket price, this will help us off-set cheaper priced tickets for lower income folks and make the festival more sustainable. Many thanks!

We can’t wait to dance with you!