This Saturday and Sunday, Presidio Middle School will be the place to get your folk on. The Free Folk Festival is back for its 35th year of live music and dance performances on three stages, 86 hours of music and dance workshops, impromptu jams, food and family-friendly fun. Admission is free for everyone.
The festival schedule is jammed with all manner of music programming, including “A Journey Into Creole & Cajun Music”, dozens of live music performances, a “Pick, Pluff, Muffle & Strum” workshop and much more.
Scheduled acts run the gamut from ancient traditions, such as Celia Ramsay and Dogwatch Nautical Band, to category-defying acts like beatboxing cellist Cello Joe, a one-man hip hop jug band. Returning favorites include the romantic standards of Leftover Dreams, western swing from The Bolos and longtime Lost Weekend front man Don Burnham, and the perennial charm of the 95-year-old local folk music hero Faith Petric.
On the main stage, the Jenny Kerr Band introduces twang to knock-your-socks-off vocals, the young musicians of Absynth Quintet fuse banjo-driven bluegrass with swinging guitar, and Hawaiian slack key guitarist Patrick Landeza secures his standing as a local music scene treasure. Fret Not Gospel will close the festival with a brand of Americana gospel that made them what a San Quentin prison chaplain called the “inmates’ favorite band.”
There’s also an entire line of programming especially for families including programs like “Toys Like Music Too!”, “Circle Time”, and “Storytelling”.
The Free Folk Festival runs from 12noon until 10pm on both Saturday and Sunday at Presidio Middle School, 450 30th Avenue. Onsite parking is available for $8 per car.
Sarah B.
[via FunCheapSF]