American Folk Festival seeks additional money, volunteers

BANGOR – With a little more than a month to go before the American Folk Festival, organizers are looking for more of two key ingredients: money and volunteers.

Though the festival is free to those who go, there is a cost for putting it on.

Each year, it takes a little more than $1 million and about 800 volunteers to put on the three-day smorgasbord of music, dance and crafts.

As of Friday, organizers were $202,393 shy of their $1,031,000 fundraising goal for this year’s festival set for Aug. 24-26 at Bangor Waterfront, Executive Director Heather McCarthy said during an interview in her office at Norumbega Hall.

So fundraising is still very much under way, she said.

“We’re not there yet. We’re about 75 percent there,” she said.

“We don’t want to be pushing the panic button yet, but we want to be responsible businesspeople,” McCarthy said.

Being short of its budget target is not unusual for the festival, which each year ends in the red.

“Every year we come close [to fully covering the cost], 92 percent, 97 percent, 93 percent. But we’re just not quite there and that adds up,” she said. The festival has a line of credit with which to make up the difference.

The bulk of the festival’s budget, more than $450,000, comes from corporate donors, large and small. The rest comes from government sources, foundations, individuals and funds earned through such means as fees collected from vendors and compact disc and ice sales, McCarthy said.

Funds needed to close the budget gap will have to be raised through donations to the bucket brigade, T-shirt sales, parking fees and contributions from individuals and small businesses, she said.

McCarthy said the festival also hopes to get some support from the state, which last year came through with $20,000.

Fully funding the event has been a priority for festival planners, McCarthy said.

From its beginning as the National Folk Festival, which had a three-year run here from 2002 through 2004, the festival has been a free event.

After ending last year’s festival with a small loss, the organizing board considered charging admission.

But reaction from some focus groups convinced the board to avoid that.

“I think two primary points came out of that,” McCarthy said. “First was the paid admission would change something about the festival that is good, the magic of the folk festival,” she said.

“But following that hard was do whatever you have to to keep the festival going,” she said.

To that end, admission fees would be a last resort, she said.

With regard to volunteers, Deb Melnikas, the festival’s assistant director, said about 200 more are needed, preferably by Aug. 13 so they can take part in an orientation session set for Saturday, Aug. 18.

People are being sought to work at least two shifts, with each volunteer shift averaging about three and a half hours.

In addition to a volunteer T-shirt, which this year comes in purple, volunteers get an invitation to an exclusive Saturday night party with the festival’s performers.

According to Melnikas, volunteers still are needed for the following: festival setup and tear-down, backstage hospitality, vending, safety escort, information booth, music logger, public surveyor, music sales, ice and water brigade and bucket brigade.

This year, the army of festival volunteers are getting a boost from the Anah Shrine’s Second Section, which will be staffing the festival parking area at Bass Park. From there, people who attend the festival will either walk to the waterfront or catch one of the BAT Community Connector shuttle buses.

Under the deal, McCarthy noted, the Shriners will get to keep 20 percent of the money raised, at $5 per vehicle daily or $10 for the weekend.

“That way, two nonprofits benefit,” she said.

More information about the festival and online volunteer signup forms can be found at the festival’s Web site at www.americanfolkfestival.com. Volunteers also can call Melnikas at 974-3216.