Fiddlers, two-steppers, buskers and bluesmen will emerge from the woodwork this Friday and Saturday for two days of dance, performance, workshops and storytelling known the First Annual Champaign-Urbana Folk and Roots Festival.
If you’re into listening, champion Irish fiddle player Liz Carroll is stopping by. Then check out the smoldering, redemptive blues of Kilborn Alley or some bluegrass by the indefatigable Corn Desert Ramblers. The festival will be kicked off with the down-home virtuosity of the Mean Lids. Composed of clogging, fiddler-guitarist Matt Turino and every-instrumentalist Ben Smith.
Dancers can stomp through a Cajun dance Friday night and the twirling, interlocking madness of Contra dancing on Saturday. Both dances are folk dances. Meaning they’re fun, easy to pick up and meant for everydamnbody. If you’ve haven’t Contra danced before, give it a try. You’ll be a pro halfway through, and a heap of sweat and smiles by the end.
Intrumentalists will find workshops galore. From guitar picking styles, to Bodhran drumming to harmonica to…
There will also be story telling workshops, community sings, open jams and spontaneous performance.
Tickets to events can be bought a la carte, or an all-access wristband is $15 . Hope to see you there. Complete September’s Ellnora – Pygmalion – CUF&R triumverate with the C-U Folk and Roots Festival.
The event will be spread throughout downtown Urbana at the Iron Post, IMC, and Phillips Recreation Center, among others, plus the headlining shows each night will be on the street at the corner of Elm and Race.
Dig into the Fest with an interview with organizer Brenda Koenig
Smile Politely: Why does Urbana need a folk and roots fest? What is it bringing to the community?
Brenda Koenig: The CU Folk and Roots Festival is a different kind of festival for many reasons, and because of this we feel we might be filling some holes in fufilling community needs and desires. First, we are are participatory festival. This means that if you come, you will not only have the opportunity to listen and watch, but to actively participate. Our vision is to have as many, or more, artistic participants than performers! There are worskhops, dances, jams, and hands-on activities (all free of cost) of all stripes, and we actively encourage people to bring their instruments and take a workshop, play on the streets, busk, jam, whatever. In case of rain (and looking at the forecast, this is a real possibility), there will be plenty of indoor venue space for folks to jam or busk….we have reserved the IMC and the City of Urbana parking garage (plus all our other indoor venues) just to be sure we have room for spontaneity in case it rains.
Second, our festival largely promotes local musicians and organizations. We have an incredibly deep talent pool in the area and I think people are just beginning to realize the scope of this amazing talent. There are also many folk organizations and performers that go largely unnoticed by people in this town, and we want to change that.
Third, one of our goals, and this may be a bit different from other events of this type, is to bring together a diverse group of artists/ performers and the general public in order to allow people to learn from each other, to grow as artists and musicians. This can only be a good thing for the local music scene.
Finally, this festival is really a grass-roots phenomenon. Nobody is getting paid to put this festival together, or to work this festival. Much of our overhead costs, from sound equipment to website maintenance to graphic design to advertising has been donated. All the money from grants, wristband sales, sponsorships, donations, goes directly to the performers, the musicians and artists themselves, who give so much to our community.
SP: What part of the fest are you most excited about?
BK: I really have a weakness for kids. I can’t wait to see kids picking up an instrument, learning to two-step to Cajun music, or listening intently to a story. I hope parents bring ’em, because they represent the future of the folk scene.
SP: What’s it been like organizing the event? How have community members and businesses responded?
BK: We started to meet in the spring of 2008….yikes, that’s over a year and a half ago! I sent out a call for help to all the players in the scene (and I know I missed many), and eventually, over the course of several months, the people who kept coming back to the meetings became the steering committee.
We have been truly amazed at the response from the community, really. It was a bit difficult to get our first few sponsors, but we perservered, and held several fund-raisers at local clubs and the Channing-Murray, and people and businesses responded. We couldn’t do it without this sponsorship and we are deeply indepted to all the businesses, organizations and individuals who have handed checks to us over the past year or so.
SP: What are some of the coolest things to watch out for this weekend?
BK: Well, each of us on the steering committee brings something different to the festival, and we all have different tastes, but for my money, I’m really excited about The Mean Lids kicking off the festival at the Iron Post on Friday at 5 p.m. This is a young local duo, Matt Turino and Ben Smith, who play some really innovative Americana grooves. You might know Matt from the [Urbana] Farmer’s Market: he’s the kid who can fiddle and dance on a clogging board at the same time. And Ben Smith is a musical genius. Also, if you can squeeze into the Post or the IMC to see Liz Carroll on Friday night, you will hear one of the best American fiddlers of all time. She has influenced scores of young violinists to cross over to the dark side and take up fiddling. Of course, the dances should all be great as well, especially the cajun dance on Friday and the contra (barn dance) on Saturday. Anyone interested in American roots music should come out and listen to the Money Creek Boys play the dance. That’s what participatory music is all about, really, playing for dancers and not for an audience. There are so many great dances and events, though, like Robbie Fulks and Los T-Birds and the shape note sing on Sunday: I’m kinda upset that because I am helping organize, I might not get around to seeing everything. I sure hope I can get to the storytelling, too, because we have some great performers there.