THE FOLK RENAISSANCE, BY BEN EDGE - FILM SCREENING

Join us for the screening of Ben Edge's latest film 'The Folk Renaissance' at the Fitzrovia Chapel followed by a Q&A with the artist himslef and Author, Editor and founder of Lost Art Media, Nina-Sophia Miralles.

The Folk Renaissance
A new film by Ben Edge

Running time: 1h 9m 40s

Interview/Q&A with Ben Edge & Nina-Sophia Miralles - 1hr

First shown at my Children of Albion exhibition at Fitzrovia Chapel last November (2025), this film explores what can only be described as a cultural revolution, and what I personally call ‘The Folk Renaissance’, where there has been a great resurgence of interest in the folk culture of Britain since the COVID pandemic. From newly formed Morris dancing sides pioneering new approaches to Morris dancing—‘Prog Morris’—to gatherings like the summer solstice in Milton Keynes, where people come together in a modern town designed to align with the rising midsummer sun. You also see shifts in areas like music, with a growing presence and recognition of the long overlooked Black British presence within folk and British culture as a whole.

When I first began documenting folk traditions in Britain in 2017, I was amazed to discover a rich tapestry of folk practices taking place across Britain, more often than not outside the mainstream gaze. My earlier film Frontline Folklore, which captured the pre-COVID ritual year of 2019, demonstrated this clearly, and despite the term ‘folk revival’ often being used, folk culture was already thriving across Britain.

That’s why I’ve never found the term “revival” accurate for what we are seeing, because in my opinion there was nothing to revive. What’s happened since COVID is very different. There’s been a real surge of interest, and alongside long-standing traditions, you now have new groups forming—people creating their own rituals within communities that have long lost their folk heritage. We’ve seen artists, writers, musicians, and activists uniting through our folk culture. The appearance of zines, new festivals, and an all-round feeling of a new movement taking place. A cultural movement, in my opinion, that is a natural response to an age defined by climate change and our severed connection to the land and each other. A post-colonial era where new generations are redefining what it is to be British, and focusing on the diversity and creativity found within regional cultures as an antidote to the mass-produced monoculture of capitalism and globalisation.

That’s why I call it a folk renaissance, not a revival.

The idea goes back to my first solo exhibition in 2017, also called The Folk Renaissance. That show came at a pivotal moment for me—around the time when I had what I can only describe as a kind of Druid epiphany, when I accidentally stumbled upon a Druid ceremony on Tower Hill in the midst of chronic depression. This led to a life-changing journey across the British Isles, documenting and painting its rituals and traditions. The exhibition itself focused on maverick individuals on the fringes of society, from outsider and folk artists to circus performers. My focus on such individuals was an attempt to shift attention away from throwaway, disconnected celebrity culture, and to draw it back to the extraordinary lives of ordinary people that more often than not go unnoticed—and the creativity that runs through all of us as individuals, and through the creative impulse itself.

At the time, it felt like quite a solitary path. There were only a handful of people I met along the way who were deeply engaged with this new reclamation of our folk heritage outside the existing communities I was visiting. Over time, I saw this handful of individuals, alongside myself, through art, music, activism, literature and performance, begin creating their own practices, traditions, rituals and ceremonies, and engaging deeply not only with their regional cultures, but with the seasons and nature itself. It’s been a privilege of a lifetime to be part of this group of people—and others like them—who have helped shape and inspire what I call the folk renaissance.

This film is a celebration of that.

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Host or Publisher Ben Edge