After three years of COVID-19 concerns and canceled meetings and more than 40 years since the last meeting was held in the city, the Texas Folklore Society is returning to Waco! The organization's almost 115-year history includes annual meetings in Waco in 1915, 1933, and 1979.
The 104th Annual Meeting (wars and the COVID pandemic led us to cancel several) is set for April 6-8, 2023, at the Hilton Waco. Located at 113 South University Parks Drive, the host hotel is within walking distance of Magnolia Market at the Silos, within a mile of Baylor University and the Dr Pepper Museum, and minutes from Waco River Park. While members planning to attend the meeting do not need to secure their rooms at this time, a group block has been established for online reservations that will remain open through early spring.
Part conference, part music concert, our annual meetings have been described as "a great family reunion–like when your favorite cousins show up!" We get so excited to see old friends and make new friends, we have to schedule a time to get our visiting in. When our home office was located in Austin, the meetings were held there every other year, and the years in between we met in other locales. We have traveled to cities north, south, east, and west, with a few stops in the middle.
TFS members meet on Easter weekend, a tradition that was started because most of our participants were affiliated with education and they were off work on Good Friday. We tried it a few other ways, but we have come back to Easter weekend as the best way for us to be able to gather.
Learn more about our Annual Meeting, and the much-anticipated presentation of papers and hootenannies that keep newcomers and longtime members here.
We're working to make 2023 an (in-person) comeback that will be talked about for years. More information will be shared as planning progresses.