I am excited to announce that Bretti Musical Instruments will be participating in the 82nd New England Folk Festival next week! The festival is held every year, put on by the New England Folk Festival Association (NEFFA). This year the event will be taking place from Friday, April 24th through Sunday, April 26th, at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel and Trade Center, 181 Boston Post Road West, Marlborough, MA 01752. Details for the festival can be found here: Festival Home – New England Folk Festival Association.
After last year’s incredible Boston Early Music Festival (BEMF), I decided to try and explore more local showcases and events for my instruments. The BEMF is held once every two years, and I wanted to find something to work towards for this year. After some searches, I stumbled across the NEFFA event. In fact, it turns out that I actually attended this event many years ago back in middle school and high school, where it was actually held in my hometown school over a decade ago! I even still have a beuatiful pair of desert ironwood bones (percussive folk insturment) that I purchased back then – even at that time, when I was just getting hooked on instruments like the Native American style flute and shakuhachi, I was enamored with fine, figured woods. Years later as a more official folk instrument maker myself, it feels like this journey is coming full circle.
For this event, I will not only be bringing my entire stock of inline ocarinas and available xun, but like the BEMF last year, I decided to push hard and produce a large number of instruments specially for the showcase. With this challenge finally complete, I am pleased to announce that for this event I will be doing a mega pendant ocarina batch unveiling marathon! This mega batch consists of 18 brand new pendants, with new keys and a brand new size, spread out over 5 individual smaller batches, representing almost half a year’s worth of ocarina unveilings and work crammed into a solid week of ocarina madness! In addition, I will be doing a very special instrument unveiling at the end, revealing a brand new offering of 18 instruments for 2026, and the first instrument of my new historical replica series! I will also be bringing several of my personal instruments to put on display, as well as some of my current historical replica research underway. In total, I will have nearly 60 instruments on display and for sale at the event – Bretti Musical Instruments’ biggest event yet!
Like last year’s unveiling marathon, each day leading up to the event I will be revealing a new batch, with full pictures, unveiling video, and sound samples of every ocarina. Because I want to have a stock of instruments for the show, these instruments will be given priority to in-person attendees at the event. However, they are also available for anyone to purchase. If you see an instrument you like, send me an email or a message, and I will put you on the reserve list for that instrument. if it sells at the event, I will notify you, however if it doesn’t sell, then priority goes first come first serve to the reserve list. There is no limit to how many instruments you can put on reserve, so if you see something you like, let me know!
Further details about the event and unveiling marathon are also available on the Bretti Musical Instruments YouTube channel, which you can find the link to below:
82nd New England Folk Festival Announcement and Mega Ocarina Batch Marathon!