Richmond - Imagine as many people as you can.  Now imagine twice that many packed onto Brown's Island.  You're at the Richmond Folk Festival - three days of music, crafts, food and people...and people.  Did I mention the people?  Last year over 160,000 gawkers, listeners, and other festival-goers showed up, and this year definitely felt like more than that.  This year's festival was almost too big.

Friday was pleasant.  Lots of good bands getting the festivities going.  Lots of people, but not enough to be a bother - just enough to make it enjoyable.  I quickly found a corn dog and settled into scoping out the festival grounds.  With seven stages ranging from a dance pavilion to classic outdoor festival stages and quite a few auditorium-style tents with stages at one end and rows upon rows of chairs, there were plenty of options for all sorts of musical tastes.  For the kids, there was the Genworth Financial Family Area, and down the hill vendor tents sprawled, displaying various folk crafts.  And of course there was the food.  Tents upon tents selling everything from classic pulled pork bar-b-que to alligator bites to stuffed grape leaves.

With so much going on it can be hard to focus on figuring out what it is you really want to be doing.  It is extremely easy to fall into the habit of aimlessly wandering.  Sometimes you end up catching the last five minutes of a bunch of acts, but other times you can accidentally discover some of the best music you've ever heard.  This happened to me on Friday night when I was drawn into the MWV stage and the sounds of Ensemble Shanbehzadeh.  I have no idea what I was doing beforehand, but I sure wasn't planning on seeing that particular performance.  Regardless, I found myself uncontrollably shuffling into the tent, enticed by the exotic sounds and the man feverishly dancing about the stage with a strange pink bag of air.  I later found out that it was a neyanban, a form of bagpipe, but at the time I had no idea what was going on except that I liked it.

In general, I found that the MWV stage was one of the better choices of stages.  I spent a lot of time there, as well as at the Center Stage Virginia Folklife stage.  I probably would have been content spending the entire festival solely at the Folklife stage.  This year's theme for the stage was “Maritime to Mountain Time: Coast to the Coal Fields,” and featured musicians from the Chesapeake and the Appalachians as well as an oyster shucking contest.  The highlight of the stage was a performance on Saturday afternoon by Nat Reese and Phil Wiggins titled “Coal Camp Blues.”  It was classic Appalachian blues with guitar, harmonica, and soul searing vocals.

While the music presented at the Folk Festival is always a joy to see and hear, by Saturday afternoon the crowds were a bit over the top.  Swarms of people covered every open space.  It was nigh on impossible to find an empty seat at any of the stages, and I spent twenty minutes trying to get down the hill from the Altria stage. Apparently, quite a few people heard about how awesome last year's festival was.  Maybe a few too many.  So while I have to say that it is a great event, and I would recommend taking whatever opportunity you can to make it to the festival next year, I would also recommend that you tell your friends that they won't like it.  If we all work together, maybe it will only be mildly packed next year, instead of insanely crowded like it was this year.

RichmondFolkFestival.org

By Editor (Managing) and Correspondent: Robin Marschak

Robin Marschak was born and raised in Richmond, VA. After a brief attempt at attending an engineering school in Claremont, CA he returned home to study English at VCU, an endeavour he is currently still engaged in. One thing that has remained unchanging throughout his life is a love of music. He was raised on local bands such as the Ululating Mummies and Dogs New Clothes as well as more classic mainstream bands such as the Beatles and the Grateful Dead. As a teen his tastes shifted towards the punk scene and bands such as TSOL, Operation Ivy, and Rancid, and while he maintains a deep love of this style of music he has broadened his listening palette quite a bit in recent years especially into the realms of country and old time music. His favorite bands currently are Popebear, a blues-funk fusion band out of Pasadena, CA, the Hot Seats, a string band from Richmond, and the No BS! Brass Band, also from Richmond. As far as more national acts go he tries to catch shows by bands like Umphrey's McGee, Old Crow Medicine Show, and the Belleville Outfit whenever possible.