The Albert Avenue Parking Lot was closed Wednesday while thin wooden boards and stacks of folding chairs were piled high where cars usually sit.
Steve Heinrich, job steward for Local 274, and other workers for the Stage Hands Union, toiled away in 94-degree sweltering heat, constructing a dance floor in the middle of the parking lot.
The labor union is just one of the many groups helping East Lansing gear up for the 63rd National Folk Festival, which hits town this weekend.
The free festival is in its third and final year in East Lansing. Next year it’ll move on to Bangor, Maine.
“There are a lot of people doing lots of things,” Heinrich said, taking a brief break Wednesday. “The remarkable community effort gets it all done.”
The festival kicks off with a parade at 6 p.m. Friday, and lasts until 10:30 p.m. It also runs from noon to 10:30 p.m. Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
Setup began Wednesday, with tents and dance floors being constructed at various locations throughout downtown East Lansing. That will continue until the festival begins Friday evening, said Mary Boeckman, assistant technical director for the National Folk Festival.
“Because so much is in the street, this is very much a pop-up event,” she said. “The stuff in the parking lots and grass fields we can start earlier.”
The National Folk Festival travels around the nation every three years. It is held the second weekend in August and is primarily a music festival - but there are food vendors, a dance stage, crafts and a game area, said Kelcey Anderson, media and marketing director for the festival.
“There is truly something for everyone,” she said. “Someone could be on their way to hear one band and discover a whole new arena of music they truly enjoy and hadn’t known they enjoyed before.”
The festival is sponsored by the city of East Lansing, the National Council for the Traditional Arts and the MSU Museum.
Anderson said for a city to host the festival, it must submit a proposal about why the town is suited for the festival and why it would be a great addition for the community. The proposals are reviewed and a city is picked based on its answers.
Last year, the festival lured 120,000 people to East Lansing and Anderson said an even bigger crowd is expected this year.
“More families are inviting their families to come down and celebrate,” she said. “Each year we tried to tweak it and make it a little better.”
Though this festival leaves town for good Sunday, East Lansing won’t be left empty-handed.
The city plans to continue on with the festival tradition. East Lansing and the MSU Museum are planning the Great Lakes Folk Festival for next year.
Lora Helou, information officer for the MSU Museum and festival co-coordinator, said the folk festival is something people are always looking forward to. The city wants to continue the tradition.
“It’s been a little of a fever pitch,” she said, of trying to put on the current festival as well as plan next year’s Great Lakes Folk Festival.
Helou said while the details of the Great Lakes festival aren’t quite polished yet, it will probably be held at the same location and around the same time as the folk festival.
She also said to visitors who are familiar with the National Folk Festival, the only difference they will see in the new gala will be the name.
“We want to have some plans in place so we can tell (people) and reassure them that we’re going to have it,” she said. “In concept, we’re planning on the same basic layout as the National Folk Festival.”
Shannon Murphy can be reached at murphy78@msu.edu.
