Photos by Tim Dwenger
Folks Fest. It’s always one of the highlights of the summer for me and, despite the rain on Friday, this year was no different. There were beautiful moments with family by the river, hilarious moments with strangers in line at midnight for numbers, and, of course, unforgettable moments of music.
There are very few festivals that allow you to truly relax but folks, this is one of them. We literally spent hours lounging and chatting under our shade structure, but we weren’t ignoring what was going up on-stage. With acts ranging from Country to Funk, every act had our ears perked and our toes tapping . . . some even got us up dancing.
One of the first to pull us up out of our seats was David Wax Museum with their eclectic sound and passionate energy and it wasn’t only us they got up and dancing; they enticed the entire crowd to their feed before Passenger took the stage with a very different but equally engaging feel. He gave us his hit “Let Her Go” alongside some much more powerful cuts like “Travelling Alone” and a stirring rendition of Simon & Garfunkle’s “Sounds of Silence.” Though, honestly, I didn’t expect too much from Michael David Rosenberg (aka Passenger) I was completely blown away by his at once riveting and hilarious performance and would gladly pay to see him again.
One of the best moments of the weekend came early on Saturday when Freddy & Francine graced the stage with an electrifying performance that enraptured the entire festival and won over countless fans. Their enormously powerful vocals were undoubtedly the star of their set as Lee Ferris (aka Freddy) and Bianca Caruso (aka Francine) struck effortless harmonies and mixed their own voices around a single mic with the precision and expertise of the best studio engineer in the world. Though some may argue as they had such an early slot, in my mind, Freddy and Francine delivered, hands down, the best set of the weekend.
While it may not merit going on too much after raving about Freddy and Francine, the festival delivered another mind bending performance on Saturday when Mavis Staples‘ brilliant Gospel rave-up pushed things to the funky edge and beyond. She dropped classics like The Band’s “The Weight,” Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth,” and of course The Staples Singers’ “I’ll Take You There” over the course of her 75 minutes and left us all wanting more, much more.
By the time Sunday rolled around our time at the festival was running out (sadly we didn’t get to stay through The Decemberists closing performance) but that didn’t mean that the acts were any less mesmerizing. On Sunday morning the back-to-back brilliance of My Bubba, The Accidentals, and Darlingside allowed me to worship in my favorite way – at the church of live music.
Though I personally felt the line-up lacked some of the punch of previous years (according to my personal music collection) I was thrilled to be enlightened by the folks at Planet Bluegrass as they, yet again, booked some of the most brilliant Folk artists in the country for their annual celebration of song. It’s always a pleasure and, after having attended 10 festivals, I can’t wait for next year and the year after that and so on . . . this is a must-see event for me.
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