Mavis Staples performs at the Richmond Folk Festival in 2018. (Photo by Dave Parrish courtesy Vance Agency)
Richmond Folk Festival
Oct. 11-13 on Brown’s Island
First presented as part of the National Council for the Traditional Arts National Folk Festival from 2005 to 2007, the free Richmond Folk Festival will celebrate its 15th year as an annual celebration of cultural diversity held over seven stages and three days. The event is helmed by Venture Richmond’s Director of Events Stephen Lecky with the support of more than 1,000 volunteers.
“We are essentially building a small city for 200,000 people,” Lecky says. “Food, water, [portable toilets], trash, recycling, power … these are all things (among hundreds of others) that need to be planned. When logistics go well, they’re invisible.”
Things don’t always go according to a plan for an outdoor event, and the first few years of the Folk Festival were a challenge.
“The first year we didn’t grasp the full scope of the festival,” Lecky recalls. “It rained, hard, for two and a half days. It was a mess. Things have gotten easier and smoother since.”
Volunteers have much to do with the festival’s success. They’re a part of the event that can’t be ordered or booked, like other essentials such as talent, stages or vendors. Some volunteers return every year, and some now have more than a decade of experience carrying those orange donation buckets, collecting recyclables, selling merchandise, recording performances and performing other duties. Helpers range from Girl Scouts to octogenarians, but during the last two years their numbers have decreased. This year, the festival needs more volunteers.
“The volunteer experience has brought me good friends,” says Tim Fite, a veteran volunteer. “It feels like a family, but with a really great mission instead of a weird uncle.”
Perks for volunteers include free parking, a staff party and merchandise. Not to mention an insider’s view of the festival’s top-notch performers. Previous festivals have included R&B singer Mavis Staples, country musician Roseanne Cash, saxophonist Maceo Parker, the Filipino gong orchestra known as the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble, and an eclectic selection of world music makers, dancers and artists. This year Lecky is excited about the CASYM Steel Pan Orchestra.
“The Folk Festival programming committee has talked for years about presenting a steel pan orchestra,” Lecky says, “but the logistics of working with a large group were challenging. We prioritized it for the 15th anniversary.”
Also on the bill this year is country crooner Dale Watson, a hard-touring headliner who’s poured his slinky baritone over Fender guitars for decades, and who appeared at 2008’s Richmond Folk Festival. But the handle rolling off music cognoscenti’s tongues this year is Bombino. The Saharan guitarist, born Oumara Moctar, is hard to put in a musical box — unless you happen to be familiar with the North African desert blues that Bombino has brought to world attention, winning fans such as The Rolling Stones. Bombino’s lyrics are soulful, romantic and, at times, political. They’re backed by his godly dexterity on guitar that hitches the spirits and abilities of Jimi Hendrix and Jerry Garcia together in a stormy jam of windswept vocals and pyrotechnic strumming. The New York Times dubbed him the “Sultan of Shred.”
Music from all of the shows is recorded by a team of 50 volunteer music loggers, led by Fite. This year some of those recordings will be available on the festival’s first compilation album, “All Together Now: 15 Years of the Richmond Folk Festival,” to be released on Spacebomb Records on Oct. 11. National Council for the Arts Artistic Director Julia Olin culled more than 1,300 hours of archived recordings for the release, which will be available at the festival. Not every artist made their performance available. Lecky wanted to include Rosanne Cash’s 2012 show on the CD, but issues related to publishing rights got in the way. The artists that did allow their music to be included represent the diverse sounds that have made the festival such a unique event: Clinton Fearon and the Boogie Brown Band, Maggie Ingram & The Ingramettes, Nathalie Pires, Peter Rowan Bluegrass Band, Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano, The Quebe Sisters, Lunasa, Altai Kai, and The Holmes Brothers.
Lecky would like to release a compilation every year, like the festival’s poster series, but first he must sell the 650 vinyl records, which include 300 “tie-dye” collectible discs. The album will also be available as a CD and digital download. Merchandising tents will sell the record at the festival, as will several local record stores. Proceeds benefit the Richmond Folk Festival.
Another way of supporting the free event is with digital donations. This year, cashless attendees can use a Text to Give option at 24365, by typing FOLK. Lecky suggests a $15 donation in celebration of the festival’s 15th anniversary. “You’d be hard-pressed to find any world-class show, much less a three-day event, for that kind of money,” he says. —Genevelyn Steele
FOLK FEST FACTS
- A typical festival is three days, with seven stages and about 1,300 volunteers.
- The festival has grown from 70,000 attendees to an estimated 220,000 in 2018.
- In 2016, a couple who volunteers at the annual event held their wedding at the Folk Festival.
- This year, the festival is releasing its first album made from recordings spanning its 15 year history.
3 MORE MUSIC EVENTS
Oct. 5-6 in Jackson Ward
Go-go pioneers E.U. headline the two-day festival of music, food and heritage. Local favorite Legacy Band also performs, in addition to four stages of live music offering a soundtrack to the walking tours and shopping. Free.
Lake Street Dive
Oct. 11 and 12 at The National
This Boston-based band that plays soulful pop and rock earned a faithful following in Richmond before making it big. There’s something special about the group that their albums don’t quite capture, and you have two nights to see it. $29.50 to $33.
Nov. 1 at The Tin Pan
Singer Oleta Adams is best remembered for covering “Get Here,” which became an anthem during the Gulf War. The Grammy nominee has released 10 records since then, without compromising her understated approach and style. Get there. $52.50 to $57.50.
