Rochester Sweeps Festival 2023

This international celebration of folk music and dance has become one of the largest May Day celebrations of its kind in the world.

Welcome to the Rochester Sweeps Festival.

This international celebration of folk music and dance has become one of the largest May Day celebrations of its kind in the world. For three days historic Rochester is transformed into a riot of colour and sound with the best musicians and bands on the folk circuit and hundreds of Morris dancers from across the country clattering their clogs and clashing their sticks up and down the high street.

Rochester Sweeps Festival is steeped in tradition, brilliantly unique, truly unforgettable and ever so quirky…and we love it. It is one of the largest gatherings of Morris sides in the world, with the streets, parks, bars and pubs of historic Rochester filled with live folk music and dance over this three-day spectacular.