Even festivals have to pause every now and then to revel in their age.

This year, North Carolina’s official international folk festival — Folkmoot USA — will be celebrating its 25th year as nine music and dance groups from four continents visit Waynesville and perform throughout Western North Carolina for two weeks of cultural exchange, folk dances and music from across the globe.

As a special recognition of the festival, the Haywood County Arts Council’s Gallery 86 will be showcasing posters, photos, paintings, souvenirs, costumes and memorabilia of Folkmoot from the last quarter century. Items include dolls from Indonesia and Venezuela, coconut masks from Puerto Rico, marble busts from Greece, costumes from France and China, official T-shirts from previous Folkmoot festivals, and many images of dancers from around the world. The exhibit will be up during the month of July, and giclée prints of three paintings of Folkmoot dancers painted by Florida artist Pat Weaver will be available for sale during the exhibit. Proceeds go to the festival.

Folkmoot, which means “a meeting of the people” in Old English, gets its name from a similar styled festival in Newcastle upon Tyne in England, but Waynesville’s version has its roots in Appalachian culture.

In 1973, Dr. Clinton Border, a Waynesville surgeon, accompanied a clogging team and string band from Haywood County when they were invited to perform at a folk festival in Sidmouth, England. Border returned home inspired with the idea of starting up a similar folk festival in Waynesville. He visited festivals in Belgium and Poland, contacted government leaders and developed contacts in the world of folk festivals. After a decade of generating local interest, raising money and planning, the first Folkmoot festival opened on Aug. 1, 1984, to coincide with North Carolina’s 400th birthday celebration.

In its inaugural year, Folkmoot welcomed visiting groups from the Basque region (on the border of France and Spain), England, Holland, India, Ireland, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Turkey and West Germany. Other performers included Doc Watson, Cherokee dancers led by Richard Crowe, Berea College dancers from Kentucky, and the Peter Gott Family, a mountain music band from Marshall.

By the 1990s, Folkmoot had grown into one of the top 20 tourism events in the Southeast. First based at Tuscola High School and later moved to Waynesville Middle School, where visiting performers ate, slept, rehearsed and played during breaks from events, the festival moved once more in 2002 to its current site at the former Hazelwood Elementary School, renamed as the Folkmoot Friendship Center.

The festival begins each year with the Friday afternoon Parade of Nations down Waynesville’s Main Street ending up at the county courthouse. The final event is the emotional Candlelight Closing on Sunday evening at Lake Junaluska’s Stuart Auditorium. Each signature event concludes with Folkmoot performers and volunteers joining hands in a circassian circle as a sign of unity and fellowship. In between the opening and closing are dozens of events — mostly public but some private as well. Performances have been held throughout Western North Carolina from Asheville and Hendersonville to Waynesville, Sylva and Cullowhee to Franklin, Bryson City and Stecoah, from nursing homes and school gyms to auditoriums and outdoor amphitheatres. Each year 20,000 visitors attend International Festival Day in downtown Waynesville where local and regional artists and crafters join the international Folkmoot groups selling crafts and performing.

In recent years, Folkmoot has expanded its repertoire of events to include dance classes, drumming and art workshops, and a Folkmoot 5K. This year’s 5K starts at 8 a.m. Saturday, July 19, in front of the Folkmoot Friendship Center on Virginia Avenue. For more information about these and other ongoing Folkmoot events, call the Folkmoot office at 828.452.2997.

Folkmoot endures thanks to the dedication and commitment of more than 600 volunteers who help out each year behind the scenes and at each of the dozens of events. There are guides for each visiting group, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, nurses, emcees, ushers, interpreters, board members and office staff assisting Executive Director Jamye Cooper. In addition, local civic groups, schools and businesses help sponsor events, sell programs, and promote the festivities.

After a quarter of a century, Dr. Clinton Border’s vision continues to bring the world a little closer. Visitors and local residents share music, dance and culture, forging new friendships and lasting memories. Since it’s inception, Folkmoot has hosted more than 6,000 performers from at least 232 dance groups representing 100 countries. As an award-winning festival that is internationally recognized throughout the world, Folkmoot USA offers audiences and participants a spirit of good will and peace in order to preserve distinct cultures and honor the folklore and arts of every nation.