Hootenanny

An informal gathering centered on folk music, singing, and sometimes dancing.

Reach for it when using a culturally rooted informal term for a participatory music event

The harvest hootenanny brought fiddlers and singers from five neighboring towns.

• playful

  singalong

  audience participation in familiar songs is the main activity

  not when A singalong may be one segment and does not require instrumental folk music.

• everyday

  jam session

  musicians improvise together without a fixed program

  not when A jam session can use any genre and may have no audience, dancing, or communal singing.

• warm

  barn dance

  social dancing in a rural-style venue is central

  not when A barn dance may use recorded or organized dance music and need not feature folk performance.

• professional

  folk-music gathering

  plain wording should identify both genre and social event

  not when The phrase does not convey the informal participatory character of hootenanny.

• literary

  ceilidh

  a Scottish or Irish social gathering with music and dancing is specifically meant

  not when Ceilidh belongs to particular traditions and is not a decorative synonym for any folk event.

• formal recital
• silent gathering
• solo practice

• community hootenanny

  The community hootenanny pays every featured musician.

• folk hootenanny

  A folk hootenanny closed the harvest weekend.

• annual hootenanny

  The annual hootenanny invites newcomers to learn the refrains.

Hootenanny is associated with North American folk culture; use a tradition's own event name where another form is meant.