Music
National Folk Festival 2009 in Butte, Montana
The 71st National Folk Festival will take place in Butte, Montana, July 10-12. The three-day multiethnic event will feature more than 250 musicians, dancers, and craftspeople.
George Everett
Twenty-five artists/groups will perform a variety of live music — including blues, gospel, polka, cowboy, bluegrass, klezmer, Cajun, rhythm and blues, mariachi, Western swing, and zydeco — on six separate stages.
A Montana Arts Marketplace and a First Peoples' Marketplace, along with four food courts, a folk-life area, and a family area, will add to the fun.
Founded by the National Council for the Traditional Arts in 1934, the festival is the oldest multicultural gathering in the nation.
The 2009 event will celebrate Native American, Celtic, Acadian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Hispanic, Eastern European, African, and Pacific Island cultures.
The festival grounds will be in and around the Uptown Butte historic district, and the main stage will be at the Original Mineyard, the site of the existing mineshaft head frame — a tribute to Butte's copper boomtown days of the early 1900s.
Admission to all performances is free.
— Sam Curtis
• Info: www.nationalfolkfestival.com, 406-497-6464
Issue: July 2009
