- FAI 2025
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FAI 2025 Advanced Registration Open Now
registerOfficial Showcase Applications are now closed!
Official Showcases at FAI present the best talent that folk music has to offer: from cutting-edge sounds to rich musical traditions. Official Showcase Artists are selected by a jury of international experts. From hundreds of applicants, 160 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. In a commitment to more equitably represent the folk community, FAI has pledged to achieve a 50/50 gender balance in programming across all stages.
Each Official Showcase is a 30-minute set performed on a full production stage at the in-person conference. Performers must apply before the deadline and await approval. Official Showcases are not awarded more than two years in a row.
FAI 2025 Official Showcases will take place at Fairmont The Queen Elizabeth in Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Are you folk?
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Below are the key dates and deadlines for the Official Showcases
Friday, May 17, 2024
Official Showcase applications open
Friday, July 5, 2024
Official Showcase applications close at 11:59 pm CT
Friday, August 30, 2024
Official Showcase Artists notified
Thursday, September 16, 2024
Official Showcase Artists announced publicly
Official Showcase Applications are now closed!
First, read through our requirements to make sure you're not ineligible. We'd also recommend looking at our resources below about necessary materials and how to submit the best application possible.
Second, fill out the Official Showcase application. We have a new system this year, so even our regular folkies should check out this our tutorial or follow the full instructions down below.
Then, submit your application with the application fee. FAI Members get 50% off their application: log-in to your FAI Membership account here to access the 50% off code. Become an FAI Member.
Selected Official Showcase Artists will be notified August 30, 2024.
NOTE for Existing FAI Members: the Official Showcase Application uses a different account than your FAI Membership Account. Please follow the instructions below carefully to create a new account for the Official Showcase Application portal, even if you are an FAI Member.
Read Full Instructions for Official Showcase Applications
(Click to expand, it's long)
Playing an Official Showcase is already an incredible chance to put your music front-and-center of the industry, but there are other benefits that come from just applying:
FAI Members: $25
Non-members: $50
FAI Members get 50% off – log-in to your FAI Membership account here to access the 50% off code. Become an FAI Member.
Attending FAI can be an investment, and attending as an Official Showcase Artists is no different: you have your application fee and conference registration, not to mention travel/room/food.
Official Showcase Application
$25 for FAI Members
$50 for Non-Members
Conference Registration
Lowest Price, Early Bird (June 1 - August 15): $235 for Artist FAI Members
Registration is capped at $775 for Official Showcase Artists with multiple members
Travel / Hotel / Food / Etc.
(not included)
Total:
between $260 - $825
To make attending more equitable and accessible, there are many ways to save on your conference registration: if you're coming to FAI for the first time, apply for a scholarship; become an FAI Member for $150 off your registration; volunteer to attend the conference for free; or use our referral program to earn your registration fee back in full!
Also, we always automatically apply an Artist discount to registrations, but the earlier you register the more you save!
The final selection of Official Showcase Artists is one of the most difficult processes for our team and jurors because of how talented (and huge) our community is. Not being selected as an Official Showcase Artist is not necessarily a sign that an act is less talented or less deserving than any other – or that a showcase application was weak. But having a strong application will definitely help you.
At last year's, Submitting an Outstanding Showcase Application webinar, we collected thoughts from our conference director Jerod Rivers, Lisa Whytock from Showcase Scotland, and Nicole Roman-Johnston from SXSW – three experts on jurying and curating global conferences.
In this 1-hour, detailed breakdown, you'll learn
If you're new to this world, or familiar but always scratching your head at this process and decision-making, this is a must-watch.
We'll be announcing more resources like this soon, so sign up for our updates to get notified.
In order not to compete with Folk Alliance International Official Showcases, and to maximize the community and career impact of presenter and industry attendance on-site, artists selected for an Official Showcase are not permitted to perform concerts within a 15 mile (24 kilometer) radius of the conference hotel between the hours of 4pm – 3am, Feb 19 - 23, 2025.