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 |
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|---|---|
| everyday | |
| warm | |
| professional | |
| literary |
playful
singalong
Fits when audience participation in familiar songs is the main activity
Careful A singalong may be one segment and does not require instrumental folk music.
everyday
jam session
Fits when musicians improvise together without a fixed program
Careful A jam session can use any genre and may have no audience, dancing, or communal singing.
warm
barn dance
Fits when social dancing in a rural-style venue is central
Careful A barn dance may use recorded or organized dance music and need not feature folk performance.
professional
folk-music gathering
Fits when plain wording should identify both genre and social event
Careful The phrase does not convey the informal participatory character of hootenanny.
literary
ceilidh
Fits when a Scottish or Irish social gathering with music and dancing is specifically meant
Careful Ceilidh belongs to particular traditions and is not a decorative synonym for any folk event.
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.
Keep in mind
Hootenanny is associated with North American folk culture; use a tradition's own event name where another form is meant.
Definitions and examples are written for this site. How words are chosen Recording: Sumxr, American accent, from Wikimedia Commons, CC0 Updated
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