The Folk Project’s 2026 Songwriting Contest
Announcing The Folk Project’s 2026 Songwriting Contest
Enter Folk Project’s first annual Songwriting Contest to win a cash prize and the opportunity to play an opening act at the Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series.
Key Dates:
- July 24, 2026 – Deadlines for entries
- August 24, 2026 – Winners announced
- September 26, 2026 – Performance at Troubadour
Prizes: Three winners will each win a $200 cash prize and will get to perform their award-winning songs in the opening set for Ellis Paul at the Troubadour Acoustic Concert Series on Sept. 26, 2026 in Morristown, NJ.
How to enter:
- Register for the contest at https://folkproject.clappia.com/app/AJC367603 and then paste the URLs into the form from two songs, MP3s or videos, that have not yet been commercially published, from any of a number of cloud-based services like Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, DropBox, Samply, SoundCloud or a similar service.
- Entry fee is $15 per two-song entry, and you may enter as many times as you like.
- Deadline for submission is July 24, 2026 (11:59 PM ET)
- You can send questions to [email protected]
Eligibility and Judging: The contest is open to all songwriters, anywhere. It will be judged by professional songwriters on the basis of melody, lyrics, composition and originality. To the extent possible it will not be judged on production quality, but your recording needs to be good enough to show off what the judges will be looking for.
Other details: You retain all rights to your own work. Should you win, you allow us to use your name and likeness for promotional purposes. If necessary, Folk Project may choose to extend the deadline for entries, but we will not make it any earlier.
