vol. 99 / happy folkAn insider's tips on how to enjoy the best festival of the year!
VOL. 99 / HAPPY FOLK
There’s no happier time of year than when the Richmond Folk Festival is in full swing. In preparation for this weekend’s three-day festival we went straight to Lisa Sims, chief executive officer for Venture Richmond, to get an insider’s perspective on how to enjoy one of the largest and most celebrated events in all of Virginia.
In her leadership role at Venture Richmond, a non-profit organization that works to enhance the vitality of the Richmond community, Lisa is known for her tireless efforts to promote the downtown area through economic development, advocacy, and events like Friday Cheers, Second Street Festival, Dominion Energy Riverrock with partners Sportsbackers, and of course—Richmond Folk Festival! Read on for her tips on the many ways to take in this year's celebration of all things music, dance, crafts, and food!
Workshops
& Talks
One of my favorite parts of the Richmond Folk Festival is actually an area that receives very little attention in the media—and that's the workshops and “talks” that are carefully curated throughout the weekend to link artists we might not normally think of as similar. While all the performances are not to be missed, it’s these smaller, more intimate gatherings of artists from different bands, and opposite ends of the country or world, that give us so much insight into each artist while showcasing the power of music to cross boundaries of all kinds. Some of the ones I anticipate the most this year include, “Iconoclasts & Innovators” featuring Bombino (Tuareg guitar), Dale Watson (honky-tonk and country), Michael and David Doucet and Mitch Reed (Cajun), James “Plunky” Branch (Afro-funk and go-go orchestra), and Super Chikan (Delta Blues). I think it’s safe to say you won’t find this configuration of guitarists on any stage anywhere else! And this is just one of the seven workshops we’ll feature this weekend.
This year is our 15th anniversary so we asked one of our performing artists, Super Chikan, if he’d donate a one-of-a-kind, handmade guitar for us to auction as a fundraiser for the Richmond Folk Festival. Super Chikan, who is an amazing Delta blues artist, is also known for the guitars he makes by hand that are often referred to as “chiktars.” The version he made just for us was created from pretreated oak, painted, then layered with glass coating to protect the design. It took several weeks for him to make this special creation and we couldn't be more thrilled to have it as part of this year's festival. The online auction will continue through Oct. 15!
Something else we love, but so few people ever hear about are the 15 or so school shows that our Folk Festival artists perform in Richmond Public Schools. Every year we work with specific artists to come in a day early and make visits to schools. We know that not everyone can get to the festival, but it would pain us to have so many traditional artists in town and have them only perform at the festival. To make these special appearances happen throughout Richmond, we work closely with the school system and JAMinc, a non-profit that’s dedicated to bringing music from all corners of the world to local schools in an effort to expose K-12 students to traditional music from a variety of cultures. While we’re putting the final touches on the festival just before it begins, volunteers from JAMinc will spend all day on Friday taking artists from school to school so that students can have a chance to spend quality time with the artists. It certainly makes us proud, and we’re incredibly grateful to JAMinc. for helping make it happen!
We've all seen the energetic Bucket Brigade teams calling for festival goers to put a "drop in the bucket" to keep the Richmond Folk Festival free. But these days, many of us just don't have cash on hand. That's why this year you can Text to Donate to the Richmond Folk Festival. That's right, fans can easily put a digital drop in the bucket by simply texting the word FOLK to 24365. A text will immediately be sent to your mobile device that will allow you to donate to the Richmond Folk Festival through PayPal, Venmo, debit or credit card.
