Folk Festival’s diverse lineup draws a crowd to match
Richmond’s music-loving population perhaps never turns out in such good spirit and sheer multitude than it does at the annual Richmond Folk Festival, which took over the downtown river walk this past weekend.
Tibetan Monks from the Drepung Loseling Monastery in Dharamasala, India sing multiphonically at the Richmond Folk Festival on Saturday.
Mark Robinson
Assistant Spectrum Editor
Nick Bonadies
Spectrum Editor
Richmond’s music-loving population perhaps never turns out in such good spirit and sheer multitude than it does at the annual Richmond Folk Festival, which took over the downtown river walk this past weekend.
The annual festival, a continuation of the National Folk Festival which made Richmond its base from 2005 to 2007, drew a crowd over the weekend which spanned the breadth of diverse backgrounds that make up the city and the greater Richmond area.
Daniel Swanson, who graduated from VCU’s kinetic imaging department in 2010, described his perception of the Folk Festival crowd after living for years in the concentration of students around VCU.
“You stay around too many students, you can get overloaded,” he said. “But you get all types of people together here – it’s great.”
“I was surprised by the age difference,” Ben Tilsen, VCU junior political science major, said. “Like, there’s literally toddlers up to people my grandparents’ age here.”
Accompanied by gorgeous weather around Brown’s Island and the American Civil War Center, festival goers enjoyed live music and dance across seven stages and over 30 acts from Friday to Sunday evening.
Folk art markets lined the paths between stages alongside regional and ethnic food stands, and a “Virginia Folklife Area” hosted demonstrations such as live guitar- and mandolin-making, a hot dog eating contest, and a harrowing eight-hour process known only as “Stew Wars,” to name a few.
The music of most performing artists was available on CD at vendors sponsored by local record store Plan 9.
Timothy Sun, a sophomore exercise science major at VCU and member of the Vietnamese Student Association, volunteered Saturday as one of the Folk Festival’s orange-clad Bucket Brigade members. The Richmond Folk Festival continues to draw public attention, as well as attendance, from being completely free to attend – and manages to do so in part by donations to bucket-wielding volunteers, who suggest a donation of $5.
“I thought it would be a great way to give back to the community,” Sun said.
Popular acts at this year’s festival included Pedrito Martinez Group, an Afro-Cuban outfit from New York City, who provided an energizing blend of traditional percussion, syncopated piano and spontaneous salsa dancing during their feature performance on Saturday afternoon on the frontmost Altria Stage.
Recovering from a bout with pneumonia, “Big Time” Sarah Streeter joined Chicago Blues legend Magic Slim and the Teardrops on Bill Withers’ soul classic “Ain’t No Sunshine” to open the group’s performance.
“I’m a crazy woman,” Streeter proclaimed in an effort to energize the crowd during the group’s second tune, entitled “Got my Mojo Working.”
After participating in the Kings of Harmony workshop on the MWV Stage at 1:30 p.m., Larry Chance & the Earls took their turn on the Altria Stage.
The doo-wop group’s rendition of “Teenager in Love,” a Dion and the Belmonts tune first recorded in 1959, stirred the older patrons in attendance.
One of the festival’s most visually striking performances was delivered by the Qi Shu Fang Peking Opera. The group’s hour-long performance intersected traditional Chinese song and dance with martial artistry and acrobatics.
Original P featuring founding members of American funk legends Parliament Funkadelic’s performance drew masses of festival goers to the Altria Stage at 5:30 p.m. Patrons in attendance made it very clear what they wanted during the chorus of a particular P-Funk song (“We Want The Funk”).
As usual, if you didn’t make it out this weekend, don’t panic – the Commonwealth Times did. Check out the CT’s special coverage of Folk Festival artists Magic Slim & the Teardrops and Chatham County Line for an in-depth look at two of the Festival’s best-loved acts.
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Photos by Mel Kobran
