About the Festival

The Door County Festival has come a long way since 1980. At that time, Gerhard Bernhard (founder, Sister Bay, WI) had the idea to share his passions for music and dance with local residents. Gerhard then invited his dancing friend Paul Collins (Chicago, IL) to help manage Festival activities. 

By the third year, Gerhard and Paul realized that locals were focused on working the tourist trade and the future success of the Festival would hinge on transforming it into an event that would attract folk dancers and their families and friends to Door County from the greater Midwest Region (and beyond).

Dancing in beautiful surroundings, engaging an excellent group of teachers, musicians and singers, and offering innovative programs have all contributed to DCFF’s fun & relaxed atmosphere and has helped the Festival attract and retain a really cool assortment of participants who attend and support the Festival, year after year. 

DCFF has undergone many changes of events that have resulted in even more fun. In the early years, the Festival offered a Sunset Dinner Cruise on Green Bay with live music, and even Group Dinners in local restaurants for land-lubbers.  These dining events eventually gave way to a Potluck Dinner held in a beautiful motel courtyard where participants shared and enjoyed a wide variety of home-made dishes. The Friday dinners have evolved into a Friday Evening Desert Social.
 

Over the years, several memorable events have occurred at DCFF, including:

Twice on July 8, 1990, at exactly "12:34:56, 7/8/90" (am & pm) dancers paused momentarily to observe and celebrate these truly unique times.

 

On several occasions, we stopped a dance party so that participants could step outside of Sister Bay Village Hall to observe the Northern Lights.

At year two of the Festival (1981), DCFF offered the option of a Saturday group dinner by hosting our own "Traditional Door County Fish Boil". The Fish Boil Dinner, followed by music and dancing in the Park and the Sunset "Pier-Walk Dance" out on the Sister Bay Pier became a popular tradition.

 

At year three of the Festival, the suggestion of a participant that there were a lot of people staying over on Sunday night, the we added a "Sunday Night Survivors’ Party" that very evening. This event evolved into a an open request format, where participants could get their favorite dance requests honored, after a weekend of pre-selected live music and leader-run parties.

 

Late-night dance parties became the norm and around 1999, the infamous “Folk Dance Olympics” became another extreme fun Saturday night activity. We often danced across the street from Sister Bay Village Hall to Al Johnson's Restaurant on Sunday morning for breakfast.

 

At year two of the Festival (1981), to say "Thank You to everyone for attending", Gerhard invited the entire staff and many remaining DCFF participants to a sunset cruise out of the Fish Creek Harbor. Gerhard’s longtime friend, Joel Blahnik took us out onto Green Bay in hs boat, the “Quo Vadis". It was a gorgeous evening with 2-3 hours of live music by a Renaissance Brass Quintet, a Chicago String Band and a Fiddle Band from Norway. This delightful and memorable evening gave Gerhard the idea of offering a sunset cruise with dinner and a live music concert to the general public. Gerhard turned this concept into a business he ran successfully for many years – Sunset Concert Cruises.

These and other extra events have added up to special reasons why DCFF has been so well loved, by so many, for so long!

 DCFF 2023 In-Person and Online
Due to the Pandemic starting in 2020, the Door County Folk Festival went online. and we believe we were the first major weekend folk dance festival to do that.

In 2021 and 2022 we again exploited Internet and Zoom technologies to present an excellent set of dance regional instructors and leaders from all over the world, including: North Macedonia, Taiwan, Greece, Peru (via Chicago), Bulgaria (via Brazil), Netherlands, Australia and Hong Kong. Since 2022 we attempted to return to an in-person event and had to revert to another online event.

Festival parties will feature the live music and vocals by Orkestar Izvor (Milwaukee, WI), Clara Byom (Tijeras, NM), Shirley Johnson (Austin, TX), Barbara Merson (Portland, ME), as well as guest host leaders from the DCFF teaching staff.

The Zoom technology enables DCFF to broadcast portions of the festival to remote participants. We'll setup a number of breakout rooms where remote participants may watch videos and photo montages from past festivals or just hang out and meet with friends from around the world in favorite after-dance “hang-outs". .

The Door County Folk Festival opens its doors on Friday July 7 at 9:00 am CDT with Setup and Registration, followed by scheduled activities beginning at 12:45pm (after a lunch).
Full Weekend Schedule Overview: www.dcff.net/schedule/

Get Your Foot in the Door!

We suggest that interested participants Register in advance.

Zoom Registration is FREE

We encourage Zoom Participants to make donations to DCFF (on-line and off-line options) at: https://www.dcff.net/donate/

Your donations help support the amazing talent you’ll see: https://www.dcff.net/staff/

For Further Information about the Door County Folk Festival, check out these useful links:

• Registration - https://www.dcff.net/register/
  
• Lodging Assistance - https://www.dcff.net/lodging/
• Zoom Registration Link https://www.dcff.net/register-zoom/
  
  
• Staff Bios/Photos (in process): www.dcff.net/staff/
• Full Weekend Schedule Overview: www.dcff.net/schedule/
• Detailed Workshop Schedule - https://www.dcff.net/workshops/
• Fish Boil Dinners at "The Log Den Restaurant" (Fri & Sat, 6:00pm) - https://www.dcff.net/fishboil/
• Return of the "Folk Dance Olympics" - https://www.dcff.net/olympics/
• BYO (Bring Your Own) Themed Social Hours - https://www.dcff.net/byo/

• DCFF Website Home Page - https://www.dcff.net/
• Facebook Discussion Group Staff: www.facebook.com/groups/dcffmail
• Facebook Fan Page: www.facebook.com/dcff.fan.page
• Donation Page - https://www.dcff.net/donate/
  

Other links forthcoming

Save the Dates - July 7-9, 2023

Join Us for Awesome Summer Fun at the 44th Annual

Door County Folk Festival