BANGOR – The National Folk Festival is expected to attract tens of thousands of people to the city when it lands here in the summer of 2002.

Count Kelcey Anderson among them.

The community events specialist for East Lansing, Mich., the city which has played host to the festival for the past three years, said she’s already made plans to visit Bangor to attend the three-day event, which promises to bring more than 60,000 people to the downtown and waterfront.

“I’ve always found some time to boogie down in the dance tent and grab a bite to eat,” said Anderson, who’s busy gearing up for the festival’s finale this summer in East Lansing. “It will be nice to be able to do more of that and a little less work behind the scenes for a change.”

Although the festival is more than a year away, it’s Bangor’s turn to plan for the throngs of people expected to come from all around New England and Maritime Canada to take in the music, games and ethnic food that have traditionally marked the nation’s oldest multicultural arts celebration.

Since National Folk Festival officials announced last month that Bangor was chosen from about a dozen cities to host the event from 2002 to 2004, local officials have assembled a committee to work through the logistics. The festival could be notably larger than any in the city’s history.

“We know it’s going to be a lot of work and preparation,” Mayor John Rohman said. “But we’ve received a wonderful response so far, and we’re excited.”

Officials from past host cities said Bangor has good reason to be excited. Bangor stands to see large financial returns on its estimated $500,000 economic investment, Anderson said, noting that the first year of the East Lansing festival brought about 80,000 people and $6 million into the city, which invested about $1 million in the weekend event.

In Lowell, Mass., which hosted the festival from 1987 to 1989, officials said they have seen significant returns from spinoff local festivals, weekend crowds which have grown to near 200,000 people.

“It’s not just a bunch of baggy-pants people playing mandolins,” said Susan Leggat, special events coordinator for the Lowell National Historical Park. “It’s been a great bang for the buck.”

The National Folk Festival tends to draw a loyal following from around the country to watch the national acts, said Leggat, adding that the Lowell festival now has its own following, including one rhythmic couple from Indiana.

“They’re in at least one picture every year,” Leggat said. “They’re dancing in every one.”

But lots of people converging in one place can have its share of problems – most notably traffic and parking – both Anderson and Leggat agreed.

“There are always things like that,” Anderson said. “But you work through them.”

In Lowell, festival organizers worked through their traffic congestion problems by closing the main street and directing parking to the outskirts of the downtown festival, said Leggat, adding Bangor officials have already scheduled a visit to observe Lowell’s summer festival.

Leggat said the Lowell festival operates with about 500 volunteers, who have become crucial to its success.

The hunt has already begun in Bangor for volunteers, about 400 of whom will be needed to pull off the festival, say city officials, who met with National Folk Festival representatives in Washington, D.C., last week.

First presented in 1934 in St. Louis, the National Folk Festival is a large-scale, outdoor event presented in a host community for three years. The celebration is a presentation of the National Council for the Traditional Arts in conjunction with local organizations.

Past audiences have been treated to blues, rockabilly, gospel, jazz, bluegrass, cowboy, polka, old-time, mariachi, Western swing, honky-tonk, rhythm and blues, and zydeco music as well as traditional music and dance from the Cajun, American Indian, Celtic, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Hispanic, African and Pacific Island cultures.

Exhibits and demonstrations typically feature the finest craftspeople in traditions ranging from pottery, quilting and needlework to instrument making and woodcarving, as well as ethnic and regional food specialties and storytelling.

“It can really bring the community together and the atmosphere has been wonderful,” said Anderson, adding that the city, like Lowell, would continue the festival as a local event. “It’s not pushing and shoving and ‘I want to be in front.’ It’s more just people walking around exploring.”