Folk Festival Report
Posted by DickH on 26 Jul 2008 at 10:09 pm | Tagged as: Lowell
In the twenty-something years that I’ve been attending the Lowell Folk Festival, today has to rate near the top, weather-wise. And good weather seemed to bring out a large and enthusiastic crowd. (Hopefully tomorrow will be just as nice). This year, I volunteered to run a Lowell Telecommunications Camera at the Market Street Stage which turned out to be a lot of fun. My camera was positioned about five feet in front of the stage, so I got a terrific view of the performances which were mostly dancers of various traditions. Being assigned to a post kept me from roaming around downtown, so please use the comment feature to share your observations and insights into this year’s Festival.
Low crowd turn out Sat., said by many whom attended !
I thought the crowd turn out was great. I think what is happening is the crowds are just more spread out as more businesses come on board to support the festival. I went down Central Street to the bank.. which is usually an empty place during the festival, yet it was full of people this year. Merrimack Street, was also a hoping place. I think that is all a good thing. If people enjoy visiting these little businesses along there, perhaps they will return to Lowell another weekend.
And the wandering mill girl characters were a nice addition this year! They were great and reminded folks of Lowell’s great history among the fabulous music and food.
I’ve seen every Folk Festival, from the three years of the National Folk Festival, through the many years of the LFF, and this year’s edition was as good as any my family and friends have enjoyed. The positive energy on the streets didn’t let up from late Friday afternoon to the wrap up on Sunday. The crowd reflected the full spectrum of the city and region–and state and country for that matter. The sponsors and organizers know how to present a world-class festival. Pat Mogan (often called the Father of the Park) said the preserved buildings would be the props around which the story would be told when we had the Lowell project in full operation. Thirty years later, that description captured the weekend. The story of America’s culture played out in music, food, dance, crafts, and more–with heritage blending with today’s Lowell on every street downtown. At the peak of festivities around 3 pm Saturday afternoon, it occurred to me that we were all celebrating that 30th anniversary of the National Park Service coming to Lowell about six weeks after the official date last June 5. This is what it has become all about. People voted with their feet for what they admire about this Park and City.
Paul is “right on” about the Folk Festival crowd reflecting the city. The Sunday folks are usually more Lowell/Greater Lowell than on Saturday and today I saw more of the real faces of Lowell than ever before and I’ve been involved from the beginning.
Also kudos to all the volunteers who worked so closely with the pros to make this event a success. They truly own a piece of each Festival. While the late afternoon rain ended the festivities a bit early, the spirit of festival goers and organizers was not dampened. New volunteers have already signed up for next year. Save the dates - July 24/ 25/ 26 of 2009.
This was my 11th festival . . . and it was a joy as always. I was able to introduce a friend to her first festival and she was enchanted . . . and planning on volunteering for next year!
I worked information this year and it was great fun to talk to folk who had never been to Lowell before . . . and who were thrilled with the spirit that they found here.