MSU MUSEUM'S GREAT LAKES FOLK FESTIVAL AUG. 9-11

Cultural expressions from across America and around the world converge at the MSU Museum’s Great Lakes Folk Festival in downtown East Lansing!

MUSIC AND DANCE:
-Paulette Brockington | Swing Dance and the Lindy Hop | Highland Park, Mich. | 2012 Michigan Heritage Awardee
-Clear Fork Bluegrass Quartet / Boy = Girl | Bluegrass | Chardon, Ohio
-Dentdelion | Québécois | Sainte-Béatrix, Québec
-Mike Espy & Yakity Yak | Chicago and Memphis Blues | Fenton, Mich.
-Kaivama | Finnish-American | Minneapolis, Minn.
-Johnny Koenig | Slovenian Polka | Allison Park, Penn.
-Lanialoha and Aloha Lives! | Hawai'ian Ukulele/Hula | Chicago
-Les Bassettes | Cajun | Lafayette, La.
-Les Poules à Colin | Québécois | Sainte-Béatrix, Québec
-Joel Mabus / Top Drawer String Band | Old-Time Strings and Contra Dance | Portage and mid-Michigan
-Lee Murdock | Kaneville, Ill. | a special repertoire in honor of the 75th anniversary of folklorist Alan Lomax collecting songs of Northern Michigan (in partnership with the Library of Congress American Folklife Center)
-Red Tail Ring / Bowhunter | Old-Time String Band and Contra Dance | Kalamazoo, Mich.
-Cathie Ryan | Irish-American Celtic | Hartsdale, N.Y.
-Tumbao Bravo | Cuban/Caribbean | Ann Arbor, Mich.
-Svetla Vladeva and the Eastern European Ensemble | Balkan Music | Bloomington, Ind.
-Mai Zong Vue | Hmong Vocal Music | Madison, Wisc.

-Most groups play 2-4 times throughout the weekend, including sets at the Dance Stage with a 2,400-foot dance floor.
-Musicians from different groups take the stage in popular Traditions Showcases --  accordion, fiddle, bass -- to share and compare traditions and techniques of their instruments.
-Also, for festival-goers to participate: an old-time musicians' jam, community sing, and a new ukulele meet-up.


CULTURAL CONNECTIONS
• 2013 Michigan Heritage Award honorees, recognizing the state's top tradition-bearers:  Wesley V. Cooper of Fremont, a bamboo fishing rod maker, and Carlson's of Fishtown in Leland, a Great Lakes commercial fishing and fish processing.
• Taste of Traditions Foodways: with authentic regional and ethnic food, from Middle Eastern to Native American, Mexican, French, Polish, Thai and more.
• GLFF Marketplace -- featuring green lifeways, recycled arts, creative “upcycled” materials, and folk wisdom to help restore, conserve and revitalize the planet.
• Kidlore children’s folk activities include Scandinavian decorative rosemaling (painting), clogging and step dancing, metalsmithing sculptures, as well as the tradition of decorating graduation caps.
• Campus and Community sessions and demonstrations present MSU researchers and students showing creative diversity, innovation, problem-solving and the many ways universities can turn education into action.


BEST OF THE MIDWEST
A special feature for 2013: GLFF plays host for the first time to the 13th traveling Midwest Folklife Festival, a free outdoor public festival that highlights the ethnic and folk arts, customs, and practices of the Midwestern states.  (See: www.midwestfolklifefestival.org.)

-James Anderson, Gladwin, Mich., Native American stone carving
-Capital Area Lace Makers, Lansing, Mich., bobbin lace-making
-Wesley Cooper, Fremont, Mich., bamboo fly rod building
-Bounxou Daoheuang, Brooklyn Park, Minn., Laotian master weaver
-Timothy Higgins, Elsie, Mich., metalsmith arts
-Carole Lanialoha “Lani” Lee-Sumberg, Chigago, Hawai’ian weaving
-Peter "Pekka" A. Olson, Chassell, Mich., Finnish American woodcarving and basketry
-Patricia Shackleton, Haslett, Mich., Anishnaabek birch bark cutouts
-Nancy Schmidt, Waukesha, Wisc., Scandinavian rosemaling (decorative painting)
-Anshu Varma, Okemos, Mich., meh'ndi (henna designs)
-Lula Williams, Detroit, African-American quiltmaking

Admission is by donation.

Festival hours:  Friday, Aug. 9, 6 - 10:30 p.m.; Saturday, Aug. 10, noon - 10:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Aug. 11, noon - 6 p.m.

For more information, call the MSU Museum at (517) 432-GLFF (4533) or learn more at www.greatlakesfolkfest.net  and on Facebook and Twitter (twitter.com/GLFF).