Great Lakes Folk Festival
August 7-9
Downtown East Lansing
WKAR Radio Personalities Host Great Lakes Folk Festival Stages
The roots, the rhythms, and richness of music, dance, arts, and culture from across America and around the world will be showcased at the MSU’s Museum’s annual freeGreat Lakes Folk Festival (GLFF), scheduled for August 7-9, throughout downtown East Lansing. Kicking off the event on Friday, August 7, will be a performance by the western swing group, Shotgun Party, on the M.A.C. stage at 7 p.m.
WKAR is once again a participating sponsor of this year’s GLFF. Several WKAR Radio personalities will welcome festival attendees to M.A.C. Stage performances Saturday, August 8 including Melissa Ingells (11:45 a.m.-2:50 p.m.), Mark Schwitzgoebel (2:45-4:50p.m.), and Brad Walker (5:45 -8:50 p.m.). The following day on Sunday, August 9, Mark Bashore will appear from 11:45 a.m.-2:50 p.m., with Rob South following from (2:50-6 p.m.)
Bob Blackman, host of 90.5 WKAR’s The Folk Tradition (Sundays at 6:00 p.m.), will be a musicologist presenter at several Valley Court Stage performances.
The festival’s music and dance program, sponsored by the City of East Lansing, features more than 50 performances ranging from klezmer and Acadian to blues and Cajun, along with Celtic, Caribbean, Tex-Mex, bluegrass, polka, and Cuban music completing the mix. Festival hours are: Friday, 6-10:30 p.m.; Saturday, noon-10:30 p.m., and Sunday, noon-6 p.m.
Performers this year will include the Bernston Family Band (Norwegian-American), Beyond the Pale, (klezmer), Gadelle (Acadian) Diunna Greenleaf and Blue Mercy (blues) Los Bandits de Michigan (Tex-Mex), Lost Bayou Ramblers (Cajun), Jesse McReynolds and the Virginia Boys (bluegrass) the Alex Meixner Band (polka), Shotgun Party (western swing), Slide (Irish Celtic), and Les Ross Sr. (“lumberjack”-style harmonica playing).
This year’s “Beyond the Music” offerings will include: Fiesta!, featuring Latino traditions; the 2009 Michigan Heritage Awards, the MSU Press/Michigan Young People’s Book Festival, the Taste of Traditions Foodways, the Folk Art Marketplace, and various children’s folk activities.
