THE AMERICAN FOLK FESTIVAL

The stages and tents are up. Performers have arrived. Food is cooking. Beginning this evening, it’s time for you to head down to the waterfront for the American Folk Festival. Despite its past success, the festival needs you – to go enjoy the music, food and arts, and to contribute financially.

If you’ve been in Bangor any of the last six years, you likely know the routine. There will be five stages stretching from Main Street to the Kenduskeag Stream. Here musicians, ranging from Texas fiddle players to Inuit throat singers to Klezmer brass players, will provide nonstop music.

Food vendors, selling everything from alligator to gooey chocolate cake, will be spread throughout the venue, with a large cluster near the Penobscot River. Handmade crafts will be demonstrated and for sale throughout the festival area. New this year is an area devoted to Maine-made products.

As always, admission is free and dogs should stay at home. Parking at Bass Park will cost $5 a day with free shuttle buses to take festival goers to the waterfront.

The American Folk Festival starts today at 6 p.m. with a performance by The Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band. A parade through the festival grounds at 7 p.m., led by Nadia Dieudonne & Feet of Rhythm, will get the crowd moving and grooving. The music continues until 10:30 with Jamaican reggae, Irish song and dance, a piano trio and more. It begins again at noon Saturday and runs through 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

While festival attendance is free, it costs the city and others more than $1 million to put on the three-day affair. Local businesses have contributed about half of the festival’s funding. There is also money from the government. The rest must come from individual donors and the sale of festival merchandise.

As in past years, volunteers will walk through the crowds with buckets for donations, not only to meet this year’s obligations, but to jump start next year’s festival. So, give generously.

Long after the music has stopped this summer, the benefits of the Folk Festival will continue to be felt. It’s no accident that increased cultural activity and a livelier downtown have coincided with the city’s folk festival success. The long-neglected waterfront has been transformed into a focal point of the city. New sidewalks, lights and lots of grass have made the riverfront more inviting and plans are in the works for condos, another restaurant and other development along the Penobscot.

Less quantifiable are the positive feelings that the festival engendered. With local support, big and small, the cultural and morale boost that the national festival brought to the city can continue for years.

To get in on the excitement, head downtown and enjoy the festivities.