American Folk Festival Memoir

The Folk Festival Bucket Brigade is made up of volunteers that hope you value the event as much as they do! A weekend full of entertainment, for your donation is essential for families and visitors alike to listen to great music, eat great food and see great local arts and crafts!

Taking the kids to the AFF is a highlight of our summer. I prefer it to the State Fair- as the crowd is more friendly and you can still get the same dough-boys and Turkey legs. My kids also appreciate the music. As soon as we get home- the guitars are tuned up and we have our own festival on the porch.

Sometimes the best parts of the Festival aren't the individual acts but the times when similar people from different groups come to discuss their art in one place. My favorite demonstration was on the Heritage Stage in 2008, when pickers from all kinds of music shared the stage. It was amazing to see the likes of Jesse McReynolds, J.P. Cormier, Steve Barr, Wayne Henderson, Jacob Eller, Johnny Hiland, and Jonn Richardson - and all of the styles of music they represented - playing together in Bangor.

One of my favorite AFF memories was the close of the 2010 Festival. Viento de Agua was playing their last set of the weekend to a crowd of festival-goers, keeping the music going for as long as they could! To make it even better, the performers and teachers from Urban Artistry wound up on stage, too. Even though Viento de Agua and Urban Artistry focus on two completely different styles of music (Puerto Rican and urban/house dance), they combined the two forms in a memorable and unique way. To me, that's what the Folk Festival is about!

Back in 2008 when The Junkyard Band played the AFF I was amazed to see the crowd at the dance tent rockin' to their music. To see a Grandma grooving in the front row and people crowd surfing proved that the AFF is not just a bunch of "sit down" music.