It is truly international. But don't make the mistake of thinking that this means that they have musicians of international repute.  Instead, the idea is that they get other countries to send whatever kind of musicians/folk dancers that they have instead of Morris Men. 

The dove is the symbol of the Festival and the original aim seems to have been to foster international understanding and friendship between nations, working on the premise that you are less likely to bomb a country whose inhabitants are capable of forming troupes of 30 people to leap around Alnwick Market Place accompanied on the accordion and dressed as C18 agricultural labourers. And a surprising number of countries seem to have troupes of people who are prepared to leap around the Market Place dressed up as C18 agricultural labourers.  Presumably they reason that it is better than being bombed.

The danger of this well intentioned pacifism is the risk that people might consider the loss of life in such a country not to be a great loss.  And of course the number of Foreign Office staff who usually attend the festival is so low as to suggest that the Festival's effect on world peace is negligible.

About five or six different nationalities attend each year and each puts on several shows. The whole festival is run on a very low budget and attracts the best musicians in each genre except those who aren't prepared to come to Northern England for a week without even being paid expenses, although they do get put up by residents.

One of the acts attending the 1998 Festival arrived three days early.  Apparently it took them less time to get here than they thought.  People were worried that their musical timing would be as bad as their journey timing but happily it wasn't.

Having said all that, what Alnwick does get is a week of free entertainment, and usually some interesting acts, never mind the Bavarian Stompers who threatened the floor of the Northumberland Hall or the unfortunate Armenians who had to dance in 6" grass.

If you had to pick a week to be in then it would probably be Music Festival week.  But find out when it is before you book.

This URL used to link to their official site but the site had been taken down when I last looked.

However, if you speak Norwegian (or possilby another Scandinavian language) then you can look at someone's account of the festival in 1998.  Lots of pictures even if you don't understand the text, but note that some of the pictures are of Edinburgh.

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