2015-2017 National Folk Festivals Location Announced!

This just in from Julia Olin, Executive Director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts:

Greensboro, North Carolina
courtesy of the National Council for the Traditional Arts website

"Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to share with you that Greensboro, North Carolina, has been selected as host city for the 2015-2017 National Folk Festivals. The festival’s three-year tenure in downtown Greensboro will begin with the presentation of the 75th National Folk Festival over the weekend of September 11-13, 2015.

Since 1934, the National Folk Festival has provided a way for people to embrace the dazzling array of cultural traditions that define our nation, celebrating the diversity and vibrancy of American culture through music, dance, traditional craft, storytelling, food and more. To date, this free-to-the-public "moveable feast of deeply traditional folk arts" has been held in 27 communities around the country.

The National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) chose Greensboro through a nationwide competitive process involving 32 American cities. This marks the first time the festival will be held in North Carolina.

As always, the festival will showcase the very finest performers from all parts of the nation, representing a broad diversity of cultural traditions. Six to seven stages ranging in size from large, open-air venues to small, intimate stages will offer continuous performances throughout the three-day event. There will be a pavilion where festivalgoers can dance non-stop, plus workshops, regional and ethnic foods, puppetry, parades, crafts exhibits and demonstrations, a family area and a festival marketplace.

The festival will also celebrate deep traditions for which North Carolina is famous, as well as shine a light on the living heritage of immigrant groups new to the region, reflecting the evolving character of the host city and state. Greensboro's unique history has been shaped by the pacifist traditions of its 18th-century Quaker founders, a pivotal battle of the American Revolution in 1781, the city's emergence as the center of the textile and furniture industries, the beginnings of the Civil Rights sit-in movement in the 1960s, and the arrival of new populations from around the globe.

The NCTA is producing the 75th, 76th and 77th National Folk Festivals in partnership with ArtsGreensboro, and in cooperation with the City of Greensboro, the Greensboro Convention & Visitors' Bureau, Action Greensboro, and other local groups.

We hope to see you in Greensboro this coming September. Our new web address is www.ncta-usa.org."

If you enjoy our presentations of traditional culture at the Great Lakes Folk Festival, it might be worth it to make a trip to North Carolina!