Organizers deliver news of folk fest success

BANGOR – When she approached the microphone Monday to brief councilors on last weekend’s American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront, festival chairwoman Maria Baeza confessed she was fighting the urge to break out into her own rendition of the Pointer Sisters’ “I’m So Excited.”

Hot, muggy weather and a few rain showers didn’t keep people away, she noted.

Though attendance figures won’t be firmed up for a few more days, this year’s edition of the three-day festival, which takes place each August on the Bangor Waterfront, appears to have matched, or slightly exceeded, last year’s total of 162,000, added Heather McCarthy, the festival’s executive director, who also attended Monday night’s meeting.

Volunteers, a key festival ingredient, continue to lend their time and talents to the event. This year, more than 900 of them stepped forward, according to Baeza.

And the people who attended the three-day party showed their appreciation with donations large and small, surpassing organizers’ wildest expectations.

This was a make-or-break year for the festival, which each year runs slightly in the red, organizers have been saying for the past several months.

To avoid having to start charging admission for future festivals, organizers put out the call to the public, asking those who attended to “kick in” to the plastic 5-gallon buckets carried by the festival’s Bucket Brigade.

Last year, the brigade collected $61,000 – up from $45,000 in 2005.

“So this year we had a lofty goal of $75,000,” Baeza said.

The response was overwhelming. Folks contributed more than $91,000 – $16,000 over the fundraising target and at least $30,000 more than last year’s total, she said.

McCarthy, who brought councilors copies of the annual festival highlights on video disc, said she would be back before the council in a few weeks with hard numbers and more statistics.

McCarthy also thanked the city for its support. In addition to $75,000 toward the festival’s $1.03 million budget, it lends staff from many departments – including public works, parks and recreation, police and fire, Bass Park, finance and code enforcement – to the effort.

Modeled after the National Folk Festival, which enjoyed a three-year run here from 2002 through 2004, the American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront was born in 2005.

After the national’s run in Bangor, it moved on to Richmond, Va. After a third year there this fall, the national festival will move on again, this time to Butte, Mont.