Billingham International Folklore Festival of World Dance

originally launched in 1965 by stockton borough council and philip conroy, billingham has been a haven of colour and culture for a week long festival in the summer to celebrate billingham international folklore festival of world dance. philip conroy was a head teacher who had a passion for irish dance and performed one saturday in the 1960’s in billingham town centre, the performance attracted a large and enthusiastic audience. at the end of this show mr conroy mentioned to councillors present that he had just returned from the continent from a week long folklore festival and remarked that billingham would be an ideal setting for such a festival, so was the billingham festival born in 1965. each year guests from all over the globe come to participate in the week long festival, held in billingham town centre, a small partially know town in the north east of england. from its beginning in 1965 only austria, estonia & hungary were represented. now in it’s 55th year the festival still has