The sound of music will be alive in East Lansing with fiddlers, whistlers and bongo and guitar players.
MSU Museum and city officials have selected the first seven performing groups to be part of the grand finale for the National Folk Festival’s three-year run in the city. The festival is Aug. 10, 11 and 12.
The festival will feature as many as 25 musical groups, including bluegrass, gospel, Jamaican and polka acts. The rest of the musical performing groups will be selected in May.
The city’s first round of performers includes Appalachian guitarist Doc Watson, Acadian-French instrumental quartet Barachois, New York-based Irish tune performers Cherish the Ladies, blues singer Shemekia Copeland, Louisiana Zydeco performer Geno Delafose, Afro-Carribbean merengue artist Joaquin Diaz and western swing performers Johnny Gimble and the Hot Club of Cowtown.
City community events specialist Kelcey Anderson said the musicians were chosen after several meetings that included representatives from the festival’s owner, the National Council for the Traditional Arts.
Anderson said while none of the performers are household names, they are the kind of musicians the festival likes to have entertain.
“We make sure that we have diverse group of genres,” she said. “We want to find good performers - they’re not going to be in the Top 40, but they’re true to their music.”
The festival attracted 100,000 people last August, improving the attendance from the first year the festival was held in East Lansing by 80,000.
Museum Folk Arts Curator Marsha MacDowell said the city hopes to see similar results at this year’s festival.
The festival will feature six stages with a constant rotation of musical acts, a dance pavilion and the Talkers and Tellers program showcasing the stories of local artists.
The Folk Arts Marketplace, Taste of Traditions Food Court and the Children’s Folk Activities area will all return for the city’s festival finale.
“We’re just going to be happy to keep it at the same size and to be able to attract the same size audience,” MacDowell said. “It’s not so crowded that you can’t move around and enjoy, but you definitely know you’re at a popular event.”
Based on the high interest in past years, the museum and the city are discussing the creation of a folk festival that would remain in East Lansing permanently.
The proposed Great Lakes Festival would begin in 2002 as a follow up to the national festival.
MacDowell will be discussing the proposed festival with other state traditional art programs today at their conference in Wisconsin.
City Manager Ted Staton said the $1 million festival will not be an easy task to continue, but he believes it has a future in the city.
“The wonderful thing about the folk festival is it exposes people to culture and musical genres that many people are unfamiliar with,” Staton said. “If you talk to the national organizers, I think they’ll tell you that the festival has been bigger and more successful in East Lansing than anywhere it’s ever been held.”
