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Even as the musical performance lineup for the 2008 American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront was announced Thursday, organizers expressed concern about reaching fundraising goals for the event, which is now just 35 days away.
The folk festival, which will open with a 6 p.m. performance by Woodland native Johnny Hiland on Aug. 22, is now at 71 percent of its fundraising goal of $1,045,000, said folk festival executive director Heather McCarthy.
“It’s a little bit less than I’m comfortable with, to be honest,” McCarthy said. “It’s starting to feel a little bit stressful.”
McCarthy also said Thursday the site of the dance stage would be moved to a location close to the Railroad Stage because of construction in the former spot near Exchange Street.
The festival will be free for everyone, as it has been since the National Folk Festival first arrived in Bangor in 2002. McCarthy said she could make no promises about next year, however, especially if the festival falls short of its fundraising goals this summer.
The festival is on pace to reach 89 percent of its goal if it receives the earned income that has been projected. Earned income includes money gained though parking and the bucket brigade, the volunteers who carry buckets in which they collect donations throughout the festival.
McCarthy said the festival, which breaks down its fundraising into five categories, is behind in money it receives from grants and foundations. The amount raised in that fundraising category stands at $37,000, although the festival had projected $100,000. Other fundraising areas such as corporate and individual donations are more or less on track.
The overall state of the economy may be to blame for the festival’s fundraising troubles.
“There are only so many foundations and there are an awful lot of projects looking for support,” McCarthy said. “Everybody’s getting less, I think.”
McCarthy said festival officials and fundraisers might go back to corporations to ask for increased donations, and beef up donation requests from individuals. The hope is that the bucket brigade can pick up some of the deficit, too.
Last year’s bucket brigade raised $94,786, which surpassed the targeted $75,000.
“All of these things we do will, hopefully, impact revenue in the bucket brigade over festival weekend,” McCarthy said.
The Bangor Daily News is among the festival’s corporate sponsors.
McCarthy said the dance tent would be placed this year at a site about 1,000 feet from the Railroad Stage, between the railroad tracks and the bank of the Penobscot River. In previous years the dance tent, known as the Kenduskeag Dance Stage because of its proximity to Kenduskeag Stream, but will be moved this year because of construction on the Penobscot County Judicial Center.
Organizers will come up with a new name for the stage, McCarthy added.
A beer tent that had been located next to the dance stage also will be in the new location.
Hiland, a country-western performer who now lives in Nashville, Tenn., will be on the Heritage stage as the opening act.
To donate or for more information about the American Folk Festival, go to www.americanfolkfestival.com or send donations to 40 Harlow St., Bangor 04401.
jbloch@bangordailynews.net
990-8287
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