About halfway through the network evening news show earlier this week one of those tedious ads for the latest patent medicine that we are told we simply can’t live without came on the screen.

The voice pushing the product made the usual extravagant claims in promising that the new pill would bring immediate relief from what-ever health problem might be bugging the viewer at the moment, and then it delivered the obligatory rapid-fire disclaimer about possible negative side effects.

When The Voice returned to its sales pitch without having planned a decent segue into its final plug for the miracle product, the result was comical: “Common side effects include constipation, muscle soreness, headaches, dizziness and upset stomach. So why wait? Get (miracle product) today for fast-acting relief…”

Why wait, indeed. I don’t know what percentage of the viewing audience might have rushed down to the corner drugstore for a supply of the medicine in order to benefit immediately from the common side effects. But I suspect that if the ad copy writer had that one to do over he might pose the why-wait question at a different point in the spiel.

Because I saw the television ad just after I had walked the Bangor Waterfront to get a feel for the three-day American Folk Festival that kicked off last night, I pictured how the folks promoting the festival might possibly have benefited from taking the same approach. To wit:

The traditional sales pitch: “The all-new, first-time-ever American Folk Festival. Just what Dr. Feelgood ordered to top off another glorious Maine summer. Celebrate the roots, the richness and the variety of American culture through music, dance, traditional crafts, storytelling and food. Free fun for the entire family…” Yadda, yadda, yadda. And so on, and so forth.

Then the mandatory disclaim-er/final plug: “Common side effects may include a spirited sense of joie de vivre, intense spasms of good fellowship, serious bouts of pride in Bangor’s continuing transformation of its historic waterfront into a showplace of greenbelt serenity, and the occasional uncontrollable urge to get up and boogie to a Cajun beat. So why wait? Be there, or be square. Mark your calendars now for The American Folk Festival, Aug. 26-28…”

Granted, I’m no hot-shot advertising copy writer fresh off Madison Avenue – nor do I play one on TV. But it matters not. For the truth is that after Bangor’s great success in staging the National Folk Festival for three consecutive years, this baby has sold itself. Not even a tone-deaf public relations hack could screw up the deal.

Three years ago, Bangor learned that if you build it, they will come. With each successive festival the attendance increased, reaching an estimated 135,000 a year ago, the last year of the National’s three-year contract and the resources a national staff provided.

Now, as the National Folk Festival moves on to Richmond, Va., Bangor is on its own with its American Folk Festival. The name may have changed, but the same top-quality acts remain a staple, from last night’s opening act featuring the Irish musical group, Danu, to the Creole jazz, Hawaiian and Hungarian music that will bring down the curtain come 5 p.m. Sunday.

Piedmont blues, rockabilly, Jamaican ska, bluegrass, Puerto Rican salsa, Polish polkas, music from the Bahamas, Greece, Sweden, Canada. If it’s not on the menu, you don’t need it, amigo.

Joe Wilson, chairman of the National Council for the Traditional Arts, praises this weekend’s lineup of musicians, including Le Vent du Nord of Quebec Province.

“Quebec music is often hyperactive, and frequently funny, and among the keepers of the great kitchen music of that special place is Le Vent du Nord,” Wilson wrote in the festival’s official program. “Much of this music is from long winter nights and Quebec kitchen parties, and these lads are brilliant in preserving a part of that universe.”

If Le Vent du Nord is anything like La Bottine Souriante, the group of wild and crazy Quebecois that brought down the house at the inaugural folk festival back in 2002, the joint will truly be jumping with joie de verve in quantities possibly bordering on the illegal.

Festival organizers have always set the bar high, inviting only top-drawer acts to perform, even though there is no admission charge for the public.

Add predicted ideal weekend weather conditions and factor in the morale boost the state received this week when the base closing commission voted to retain military facilities and jobs at Limestone and Kittery and what you have is party time.

See you there.

NEWS columnist Kent Ward lives in Winterport. His e-mail address is olddawg@bangordailynews.net