Fall Folk Festival

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This past weekend the Spokane Folklore Society's 23rd annual Fall Folk Festival was held in Spokane, Washington. This was the 12th time I've been to the festival; we first heard about it and began attending 15 years ago. My children were in their teens back then, and I usually took them all along for a full day of music and dance enjoyment. Once, I booked a motel room for all of us so we could take in both days' festivities! In recent years I've usually made the hour-long drive alone, and one or two of my "kids" join me there as work schedules and ambition levels allow. The past four times I also volunteered as a greeter for two hours. It's an easy job: hand out schedules, sell buttons, direct people to where they need to be, answer questions, and sometimes open the door for vendors with loaded handcarts.

The Fall Folk Festival could be described as two days of complete sensory overload! In the course of two days, approximately 120 performers/groups fill eight different rooms, usually 30-45 minutes per group, with songs, instrumental music, dancing, poetry readings, and storytelling. Most of the groups are local, or from the Pacific Northwest. Some of the genres include African, Celtic, Hawaiian, Klezmer, Middle Eastern, Bluegrass, Jazz, and Western. My favorites include the Coeur d'Alene Youth Marimba group (lively, energizing music and brightly-colored costumes), Kevin Pace and the Early Edition (bluegrass), the Celtic Nots (Celtic music), Floating Crowbar (more Celtic music), and the Angus Scott Pipe Band and Scottish Country Dancers.

The faces have changed over the years, of course. Old favorites have disappeared, while new favorites have been discovered. This year the Montana Ramblers performed at this festival for the first time, and I thoroughly enjoyed their bluegrass and gospel sound. Tra Le Gael, another new-to-us group from Montana, played traditional and contemporary Celtic music that was extremely relaxing and peaceful.

Every year there is a Contra Dance from 8:30-10:00 p.m. on Saturday evening, with basic instruction beforehand. Anyone can join in the fun. This year there was another Contra Dance workshop Sunday afternoon, with music by the Celtic Nots. Alas, I could only be there on Saturday, so I missed hearing one of my favorite groups play.

In addition to the scheduled events, groups of musicians gather in the wide hallway for jam sessions. At one point on Saturday I counted four such groups circled together, one right after the other, and I wondered how each group could focus on what their group was playing with so much music surrounding them! Sometimes it is just as much fun to sit and listen to the jam sessions as it is to listen to the scheduled performers.

Yes, I took a few pictures, but it's hard to get a decent shot in a large room with the audience's heads sticking up everywhere. The official photographers stroll right up front with their fancy cameras and get good photos, but I don't usually have the nerve to do that with my little cell phone in hand. So if you'd like to get a glimpse of what this is all about, you can click here and enjoy the pictures those photographers have taken in years past.