LEWIS CENTER – The Central Ohio Folk Festival will celebrate its 25th season May 7-8 with a return to in-person concerts, workshops, storytelling and crafts the family and community can enjoy.
Once again, the setting will be Highbanks Metro Park, 9466 North High St. (U.S. Route 23).
Among the festival highlights:
• More than 30 hourly concerts on three stages by soloists, duos and groups, singing and playing guitar, mandolin, banjo, dulcimer, harp, and other instruments. There will be a wide range of folk music – bluegrass, blues, singer-songwriter, Americana, Latin fusion, Scottish traditional, Native American and more, songs that often reflect the struggles of everyday people.
• A giant 1960s-style folk music community sing-along to open the festival.
• More than 30 workshops on songwriting, the role of folk music in social change, and how to play guitar, Irish fiddle, dulcimer, folk harp, ukulele and other instruments. Knox County residents Howard and Judy Sacks and Jeff Putnam will present workshops on traditional country music and beginning folk guitar, respectively.
• A special children’s area with arts and crafts, plus an “instrument petting zoo” to let children handle folk instruments. Festival mascot Darby Duck will be on hand.
• Two drum circles where everyone, young and old alike, is invited to pound on a drum or other rhythm instrument.
.• A storytelling session featuring local tellers plus Native American musician and storyteller Alexa Dawson.
• Informal jamming by anyone with an instrument or voice. This year’s jams will be led by groups that hold regular weekly jams in Columbus.
• For the first time, the festival will include a beer garden tent, where those 21 and older may purchase a craft beer while the music from nearby performers wafts through the air.
Saturday, May 7, at 7 p.m., in the main tent, the headliner act, the Way Down Wanderers, will perform a special concert with strands of bluegrass, Americana and pop music. The five young musicians from Illinois mix vocal harmonies, complex string-band instrumentation and lyrics to create original songs. “They sing like angels but write songs with guts,” the band's website says.
Donations will be welcomed. There will be no charges for the many activities, and that includes workshops, hourly concerts, jam sessions, children’s activities and even the Saturday night headliner concert. The festival staffers are all volunteers, so 100% of the money that people contribute will help support this festival.
The festival is produced by the Columbus Folk Music Society and is co-sponsored by WCBE Radio 90.5 FM.
For more info, visit https://www.columbusfolkmusicsociety.org/festival.html.
To donate early and to reserve a seat inside the tent for our headliner concert, go to https://centralohiofolkfestival2022donate.eventbrite.com.
For more details or to arrange media interviews, contact publicity coordinator Bill Cohen at BillCohen@columbus.rr.com.
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