Folk Festival preparations nearly complete

The word on the street is that the inaugural year of The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront will be just as successful as the three-year run of the National Folk Festival.

The American Folk Festival, a local spinoff of the National, runs Aug. 26-28. Like the National, the American will feature more than two dozen performance artists ranging from the Jamaican ska band the Skatalites to Hawaiian slack-key guitarist Cyril Pahinui. Admission is free.

“We had 135,000 people last year,” Heather McCarthy, The American Folk Festival’s executive director, said Monday. “We are putting infrastructure into place for a similar crowd. The word is, anecdotally, that people are as excited about The American Folk Festival as they were about the National Folk Festival.”

That’s what the festival organizers hope, anyway, and that the weather cooperates and everything runs on schedule.

“We’ve been very fortunate with the weather for the past folk festivals,” said McCarthy. “The only issues before were some cold fronts that dropped temperatures down 20 degrees, and last year it was a little warm.

“But I’ve seen these audiences, and they’re pretty hardy. It’s unlikely rain would stop our crowd,” she said. “We go on rain or shine, though we would stop if there was any kind of threat, like thunder and lightning.”

The Maine Department of Transportation is preparing for increased traffic from festival-bound vehicles converging on Greater Bangor from the south and east.

“We’re putting some message boards up on the interstate advising people where to go,” said Jerry Waldo, regional manager for eastern Maine. “We’re as prepared as we believe we need to be, so everyone can just sit back and enjoy it.”

Construction projects on the interstate and on Route 1A between Bangor and the Ellsworth area will be put on hold Saturday and Sunday, but motorists are urged to use caution and allow extra travel time because of road conditions.

“One thing that works to our advantage is that we don’t have any hard and fast start or end time,” said McCarthy. “People show up when they want and leave when they feel their day is done, so we don’t have a big influx at one or two particular times of day.”

Festival parking remains the same this year, with shuttle buses running from the parking lot at Bass Park to the waterfront. The only difference: This year it costs $5 to park, to help offset festival costs.

Festival organizers say preparations for the three-day happening are proceeding well. The trailers arrived late last week, the tents went up on Monday, the stages and dance floors were in place Tuesday, and sound and lighting were hooked up Wednesday. By tomorrow, a host of area food vendors will have set up shop, selling everything from lamb kebabs to blueberry smoothies. The only thing left is the music.

“We’ve got the same kind of diversity as in the previous years,” said McCarthy. “We have some of the same genres this time, since Irish music and Cajun music have been such big hits.”

McCarthy said that one band that everyone seems extremely excited about is the Skatalites, a legendary Jamaican ska band.

“I’m a little surprised by how many people are just over-the-top excited about the Skatalites,” she said. “I think it’ll be a slightly different crowd than have come to our past events. I hope they see more than just them, though.”

With a lineup that features not only festival favorites such as Irish and salsa, but also new genres such as Greek cabaret (called “smyrneika” by practitioner Sophia Bilides) and Hungarian gypsy music, there’s music for just about everyone.

Performers are expected to start arriving Thursday night, though some won’t have much time between touching down and taking the stage. In the worst-case scenario – a slated performer doesn’t make it – McCarthy has faith other artists would step in and play an extra show.

The Holiday Inn on Main Street in Bangor has served as the host hotel for festival planners and entertainers.

“They’ve had the hotel booked since they started planning,” said Brett Stacy, hotel manager. “They fill up the entire hotel, and there’s even a little spillover into our Odlin Road location.”

Hotel and motel rooms were still available for the weekend, as many attendees from maritime Canada and southern Maine and New Hampshire often commute, making the festival a day trip.

All in all, McCarthy said she’s confident the weekend will go off swimmingly.

“Thank goodness I have so many people working on this,” she said. “I’ve got a great crew of people here and people that come into help. It really is exciting.”