The work aims to study the impact of festival symbol perception on folk experience by constructing a model of "festival symbol perception-empathy-folk experience", and discuss the mediating role of empathy, to innovate in new paths to enhance folk experience and explore new ideas for modern inheritance and dissemination of folk culture. Based on psychological perception and empathy theory, cognitive semiotics theory, and economic perceptual value theory, the literature research method was adopted to sort out the relationship between festival symbol perception, empathy, and folk experience from the perspective of design and construct a data model with empathy as the mediator to investigate the impact of festival symbol perception on folk experience. Questionnaire survey and data analysis methods were used to investigate the impact mechanism of festival symbol perception on folk experience under the influence of empathy. The study confirmed the positive impact and role of festival symbol perception on folk experience and empathy, as well as the significant positive impact of cognitive and behavioral empathy on real scene folk experience and the non-significant positive impact on virtual scene folk experience. It also verified the mediating effect of empathy between festival symbol perception and folk experience. The study clarifies the important role of empathy in enhancing the perception of festival symbols and folk experience. Through empathy, emotional connections can be established for folk festival experience, promoting cultural exchange and identification, and providing inspiration for enriching the forms of folk experience and creating the inheritance and dissemination of folk festival culture.