National Folk Festival Coming to Butte July 11-13, 2008
The National Folk Festival is the oldest multi-cultural festival of traditional arts in America. The event has been produced by the National
Council for the Traditional Arts (see www.ncta.net) in 26 different cities since 1934 and since its inception the festival has been free of
admission to all who want to attend.
surrounded by tall historic buildings from Butte’s heyday as a cosmopolitan outpost on America’s urban frontier. The festival will also
include a dance stage with live music and a dance floor dedicated to participatory dancing.
Material Culture Demonstrations
The National will also feature a stage at the Montana Folklife Area where material culture demonstrations will be held with recognized
masters and apprentices of traditional crafts sharing their skills from throughout the region. These traditional art demonstrators will be
invited as honored guests to describe and show how they do their work to the festival audience in a separate area known as the Montana
Folklife Area professionally curated by folk arts experts from Montana and from the National Council for the Traditional Arts.
Family Area
A fifth stage will be located in The Family Area. The family area will feature a stage for ongoing performances and a range of hands-on
activities for children including games, crafts, displays, and performances that educate them about the importance of traditional arts in their
world. Two other stages will host musical performances during the three-day festival in yet to be determined locations.
Montana Traditions Marketplace and First Peoples’ Marketplace
The Montana festival will host up to 50 traditional artists and craft vendors from far and wide showcased in a Montana Traditions
Marketplace and an adjacent First Peoples’ Marketplace that features Native American crafters. The First Peoples’ Marketplace will be a
unique feature of the National Folk Festival in Montana. Native artists wanting to apply can visit the web site www.nationalfolkfestival.com for
an application and guidelines they can print out and mail in to be considered by a jury that will evaluate the applicants. Deadline for
applications is March 15.
The First Peoples’ Marketplace is made possible by the sponsorship of Seacast, Inc., (www.seacast.com) a Seattle-based corporation that
has become the first corporate sponsor for the festival with a $25,000 sponsorship of the First Peoples’ Marketplace.
Food and Drink Vendors
Up to 25 ethnic and festival food vendors will serve everything from funnel cakes to Indian fry bread and tacos to kettle corn to Serbian
Povitica to fresh squeezed lemonade to Cornish pasties. About 85 percent of the food vendors will serve ethnic food representing the
cuisine of natives and immigrants to the region and 15 percent will represent what people might expect from any festival, fun sweet food that
can be carried from venue to venue and devoured between sets. The festival will be accepting applications for food vendors through March
7 and applications and guidelines are available at www.nationalfolkfestival.com or by calling 406-497-6464 to have printed copies sent.
Free to All
Admission throughout the three-day event is free to everyone.
Festival Music Sales
Throughout the festival there will be opportunities to purchase the recorded music of the artists who perform who will be available as well to
sign their CDs by the stages after their performances and also in booths dedicated to CD sales.
Festival Merchandise
At assigned booths, festival goers can purchase a range of festival merchandise to carry the National home when they leave the festival.
Available will be cups, visors, water bottles, keychains, hoodies, T-shirts, tote bags and other memorabilia – look for everything except foam
fingers and maybe a few of those, too.
Information Booths
Strategically placed booths will be available for directions and answers to all questions. Try to stump the volunteers with any questions you
can think of about the festival, the community of Butte and the state of Montana.
Beer and Wine Sales
Beer and wine will be available for sale by the cup and glass at special booths and beer gardens.
Volunteer Registration
Volunteers who have signed up in advance can check in at the volunteer registration booth to get their assignments. Opportunities still
abound for volunteers, (only 700 are needed) to help complete a variety of tasks to help put up, operate and then tear down such a large
festival site.
About Montana and Butte
The selected host city is the most recent reason why Butte is fast becoming known as Montana’s Festival City. Located between
Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks at the crossroads of two major Interstate highways, I-15 and I-90, Butte’s festival season comes
early in February with the world’s loudest and shortest Chinese New Year parade (see www.maiwah.org).
In March, Butte hosts one of the nation’s most notorious St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. And Butte becomes home to the nation’s top motor
daredevils, who wow large crowds during the last weekend of July for the annual Evel Knievel Days (www.knieveldays.com) celebration of
the iconic daredevil’s home town.
On the second weekend of August, the Montana Irish Festival (www.mtgaelic.org) brings thousands to celebrate the state’s Celtic heritage
including top notch musical performances from Celtic musical performers each year.
For more details, visit www.nationalfolkfestival.com or send email to geverett@mainstreetbutte.org or call George Everette, 406-497-6464.
The National Folk Festival is the oldest multi-cultural festival of traditional arts in America. The event has been produced by the National
Council for the Traditional Arts (see www.ncta.net) in 26 different cities since 1934 and since its inception the festival has been free of
admission to all who want to attend.
- The free three-day festival celebrates the music, dance, food and culture drawn from the
heritage of the many immigrant groups that have helped settle America. Now in its 70th
year, the National is a traveling festival produced in partnership with different
communities around the country. The three-year stay in each host city is intended to lay
the groundwork for locally produced festivals and events that continue after the National
moves on. From 2005 to 2007, the National was hosted in Richmond, Virginia. The
Virginia Festival will continue in 2008 as the Richmond Folk Festival (see www.
richmondfolkfestival.org.) Three years before that, the festival was held in Bangor, Maine
and that event too continues as the American Folk Festival (see www.
americanfolkfestival.com).
Now it’s Montana’s turn. Butte, Montana will host the 70th National Folk Festival on July
11-13, 2008. In 2009 and 2010 the festival will also be held in Butte on the second
weekend of July. This is the first time the National Folk Festival has been hosted west of
the Mississippi River in decades and the first time ever the festival has been hosted in
Montana.
Over the years, musicians and craftspeople from every state in the Union and most U.S.
territories have participated in this “moveable feast of deeply traditional folk arts.”
Presented to audiences free of charge over three days, National Folk Festivals since
1987 have attracted audiences of 100,000 or more. Plans are underway to bring the
level of talent and quality of performances that are the trademark of the National to
audiences in Montana.
Seven Stages
The Montana festival will feature seven stages that will host up to 250 of the finest
performers of the musical influences of immigrants from around the world, performing in
the traditions of Celtic, Western Swing, Zydeco, French Canadian, Cajun, Mariachi,
Bluegrass, Reggae, Blues, Marimba, Klezmer, Polka, Tamburitza and many other
musical styles that have influenced the cultural development of our people.
These musicians and dancers will perform at the main ampitheatre stage which is
being developed on the site of the Original Mineyard, a historic headframe (see www.
mainstreetbutte.org/headframes.htm) that is a remnant of Butte’s days as an
underground copper mining center.
surrounded by tall historic buildings from Butte’s heyday as a cosmopolitan outpost on America’s urban frontier. The festival will also
include a dance stage with live music and a dance floor dedicated to participatory dancing.
Material Culture Demonstrations
The National will also feature a stage at the Montana Folklife Area where material culture demonstrations will be held with recognized
masters and apprentices of traditional crafts sharing their skills from throughout the region. These traditional art demonstrators will be
invited as honored guests to describe and show how they do their work to the festival audience in a separate area known as the Montana
Folklife Area professionally curated by folk arts experts from Montana and from the National Council for the Traditional Arts.
Family Area
A fifth stage will be located in The Family Area. The family area will feature a stage for ongoing performances and a range of hands-on
activities for children including games, crafts, displays, and performances that educate them about the importance of traditional arts in their
world. Two other stages will host musical performances during the three-day festival in yet to be determined locations.
Montana Traditions Marketplace and First Peoples’ Marketplace
The Montana festival will host up to 50 traditional artists and craft vendors from far and wide showcased in a Montana Traditions
Marketplace and an adjacent First Peoples’ Marketplace that features Native American crafters. The First Peoples’ Marketplace will be a
unique feature of the National Folk Festival in Montana. Native artists wanting to apply can visit the web site www.nationalfolkfestival.com for
an application and guidelines they can print out and mail in to be considered by a jury that will evaluate the applicants. Deadline for
applications is March 15.
The First Peoples’ Marketplace is made possible by the sponsorship of Seacast, Inc., (www.seacast.com) a Seattle-based corporation that
has become the first corporate sponsor for the festival with a $25,000 sponsorship of the First Peoples’ Marketplace.
Food and Drink Vendors
Up to 25 ethnic and festival food vendors will serve everything from funnel cakes to Indian fry bread and tacos to kettle corn to Serbian
Povitica to fresh squeezed lemonade to Cornish pasties. About 85 percent of the food vendors will serve ethnic food representing the
cuisine of natives and immigrants to the region and 15 percent will represent what people might expect from any festival, fun sweet food that
can be carried from venue to venue and devoured between sets. The festival will be accepting applications for food vendors through March
7 and applications and guidelines are available at www.nationalfolkfestival.com or by calling 406-497-6464 to have printed copies sent.
Free to All
Admission throughout the three-day event is free to everyone.
Festival Music Sales
Throughout the festival there will be opportunities to purchase the recorded music of the artists who perform who will be available as well to
sign their CDs by the stages after their performances and also in booths dedicated to CD sales.
Festival Merchandise
At assigned booths, festival goers can purchase a range of festival merchandise to carry the National home when they leave the festival.
Available will be cups, visors, water bottles, keychains, hoodies, T-shirts, tote bags and other memorabilia – look for everything except foam
fingers and maybe a few of those, too.
Information Booths
Strategically placed booths will be available for directions and answers to all questions. Try to stump the volunteers with any questions you
can think of about the festival, the community of Butte and the state of Montana.
Beer and Wine Sales
Beer and wine will be available for sale by the cup and glass at special booths and beer gardens.
Volunteer Registration
Volunteers who have signed up in advance can check in at the volunteer registration booth to get their assignments. Opportunities still
abound for volunteers, (only 700 are needed) to help complete a variety of tasks to help put up, operate and then tear down such a large
festival site.
About Montana and Butte
The selected host city is the most recent reason why Butte is fast becoming known as Montana’s Festival City. Located between
Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks at the crossroads of two major Interstate highways, I-15 and I-90, Butte’s festival season comes
early in February with the world’s loudest and shortest Chinese New Year parade (see www.maiwah.org).
In March, Butte hosts one of the nation’s most notorious St. Patrick’s Day celebrations. And Butte becomes home to the nation’s top motor
daredevils, who wow large crowds during the last weekend of July for the annual Evel Knievel Days (www.knieveldays.com) celebration of
the iconic daredevil’s home town.
On the second weekend of August, the Montana Irish Festival (www.mtgaelic.org) brings thousands to celebrate the state’s Celtic heritage
including top notch musical performances from Celtic musical performers each year.
For more details, visit www.nationalfolkfestival.com or send email to geverett@mainstreetbutte.org or call George Everette, 406-497-6464.
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
- Renewable Energy
- Environment
- Transportation
- Health & Fitness
- Sports & Recreation
- Environment
- Transportation
- Health & Fitness
- Sports & Recreation
