Getting My Folk On!

This weekend was the Montana Folk Festival. Today is the last day for it. Colleen and went on Friday night and the acts we caught were very good. The festival does a good job of bringing in a wide range of musicians from all around the world. The opening act this year was a group from Quebec, Canada called Cecilia. They were very good and got the crowd fired up at the Original Stage.

The festival all got started when the National Public Radio awarded Butte to be the location for its 2008-2010 folk festivals. Then the NPR Folk Festival moved on to its next location and Butte decided to continue to do its own festival and called it the Montana Folk Festival. Well they do one hell of a job with it. They have six stages around uptown Butte and they have made a lot of improvements over the years to make the festival better each year. The nice thing is the act rotate around the stages over the three days so you have multiple chance to catch their act if you missed them the first time.

It always seems like the festival weekend is one of the hottest weekends of the year, but people get through it. It is all free and stays that way due to the generosity of sponsors and donations from attendees.

The venue is amazing and whomever had the foresight to turn the old Original Mine Yard into a venue for various events but especially musical events was a genius. I remember when it was first starting a lot of people Jennifer and myself included thought that this was probably not going to be much. They would do the three years with NPR and it would be done. Well, I guess we were wrong. The crowds were large and it is always interesting people watching.

As I was watching last night, I thought about all the miners that worked at the Original and what they would think about all these people partying on the yard where they toiled to make a living. I am sure if you told them that this would occur in the future they would have said you were fucking nuts!

You see lots of old hippies and lots of young people who wish they were born in the hippie era. The alcohol and pot is ever present, but people are having a good time and getting exposed to music types they would never think to listen to. They also have lots of interesting food trucks and vendors present. They also have a first people’s market where Native American artisans can sell their wares. They also have a Native American fashion show, which is a big hit with attendees. I did not catch that this year, but people I talked to said it was wonderful.

If you are into music, then you should really try and attend this event and/or tune into Montana PBR radio during the festival as they broadcast the acts performing at the Original Stage.

Below is a photo from Friday night. This was Keith Johnson a blues band from Mississippi. They were the closing act on Friday. The photo was taken at around 9:30 pm. You can just make out “The Lady of The Rockies” on the East Ridge of the Continental Divide in the background.

Last night there was a group called the Legendary Ingramettes. They are a gospel group from Virginia. The lead singer said she was a 75 year old grandma. She could still belt those songs out. Jennifer would have loved listening to them.

Anyway it appeared to be another successful festival and something to look forward to next year.