Over the years, immigrants flowing into Maine have brought with them food customs from across the globe. From Chinese spring rolls and dumplings to Argentinian empanadas, these foreign delicacies have greatly enhanced Maine’s traditional New England fare. At the festival’s Foodways Stage on Saturday and Sunday, visitors can… Read More
Saturday: noon Kenduskeag, 3 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: noon Heritage, 1:45 p.m. Kenduskeag The Polka Family Band really is a family band. The father, mother and four children began performing together back in the 1970s in Southern California, playing traditional Polish polka for relatives and at… Read More
When Lillian Lo moved to Bangor from Hong Kong 25 years ago, she learned how to cook in a hurry. In Hong Kong, she worked in real estate, lived in the city, and simply went to the market or a restaurant when she wanted a meal. In Bangor,… Read More
Saturday: 1 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: 1 p.m. Railroad, 3:30 p.m. Children’s Area Akta (?k tuh), a Swedish word meaning “genuine” or “true,” is the name of this fiddle ensemble from Minnesota dedicated to preserving traditional Swedish music. The group’s leader, Paul Dahlin, fiddler, violin repairman,… Read More
Saturday: 5 p.m. Railroad, 9:15 p.m. Kenduskeag; Sunday: 12:30 p.m. Kenduskeag, 4:15 p.m. Kenduskeag Edwin Ortiz y su Orquesta La Romana has been “spicing up” the clubs of Washington, D.C., and Baltimore with its New York-style salsa sounds since 1989. Over the last two decades,… Read More
Folk-Demos Immigrants to Maine often bring a wealth of cultural traditions such as music, dance and dress that are reflective of their native country. These customs and possessions enable them to retain a sense of ethnic identity and are a potential resource for enriching their… Read More
Friday: 6 p.m. Heritage, Festival kickoff; Saturday: 2 p.m. Heritage, 6:15 p.m. Penobscot; Sunday: 4 p.m. Railroad The heart of Irish music remains, as it has been for centuries, the “sessiun,” the informal musical and social gatherings where any and all gather to play traditional… Read More
Saturday: 12:50 p.m. Two Rivers, 4 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: 3 p.m. Railroad, 5 p.m. Two Rivers Cyril Lani Pahinui, born in 1950 on Oahu’s windward coast, is a well-known player of Hawaiian slack-key guitar. He is the second-to-last of 10 sons of Hawaii’s greatest slack-key… Read More
Saturday: 1 p.m. Penobscot, 9:15 p.m. Penobscot; Sunday: 1 p.m. Penobscot, 4 p.m. Two Rivers Espiritu del Flamenco performs intense and passionate music that evolved in the region of Andalusia in southern Spain. Flamenco music tells stories of love, death, suffering, poverty and persecution –… Read More
What better way to get the American Folk Festival started than the sauntering party that is the Bahamas Junkanoo Revue? The Miami-based troupe will be featured in the kickoff parade for the inaugural festival on Bangor’s waterfront. Its members weave a tale told by frolickers,… Read More
Friday: 7:45 p.m. Railroad; Saturday: 2 p.m. Railroad, 3:45 p.m. Kenduskeag; Sunday: 5 p.m. Railroad New Orleans-based Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders perform classic early jazz. Drawing heavily on New Orleans’ Creole heritage, the band’s repertoire includes early Creole jazz tunes performed in… Read More
Think about the diversity of a folk festival and images of exotic instruments may come to mind. This year, expect to see a Greek trapezoidal string santouri, Spanish flamenco guitarra, Creole washboard, Cajun accordion, and hand drums from the American Indian Tsimshian people. But think… Read More
Friday: 8:45 p.m. Railroad; Saturday: noon Railroad, 6 p.m. Heritage; Sunday: noon Penobscot Le Vent du Nord is recognized as one of the most dedicated conservators of traditional Quebecois song, story, dance and music. The quartet is made up of step dancer and accordionist Benoit… Read More
Friday: 9:15 p.m. Kenduskeag; Saturday: 2:30 p.m. Kenduskeag, 9:45 p.m. Railroad; Sunday: 2 p.m. Railroad The renaissance in Cajun dance music has brought forth a whole new group of young musicians from southwestern Louisiana who have breathed new life into the genre. At the forefront… Read More
Saturday: 5:30 p.m.Two Rivers; Sunday: 4 p.m. Heritage Since they were going to be in the neighborhood, just finishing a cruise for public radio’s “A Prairie Home Companion” along the Maine coast, two of America’s favorite Cajun musicians are dropping by to help inaugurate The… Read More
Saturday: noon Two Rivers, 5:15 p.m. Penobscot; Sunday: noon Two Rivers, 2 p.m. Heritage Sophia Bilides has been called the foremost practitioner of Smyrneika, a cabaret tradition born of Asia Minor Greek refugees in the 1930s and ’40s. A second-generation Greek-Italian American now residing in… Read More
Saturday: Noon Heritage, 2:30 p.m. Two Rivers; Sunday: 3 p.m. Heritage Master fiddlers from three generations bring the musical tradition of Maine’s Franco-American community to The American Folk Festival, playing music that ethnomusicologist Bau Graves of Portland’s Center for Cultural Exchange has described as “simultaneously… Read More
It’s a hot, sunny summer solstice in Lewiston, and anticipation hangs in the air at the Montello Heights retirement community. A band of fiddlers, ranging in age from 14 to 81, warm up their strings in one corner of the activity room. Residents tap their feet and call… Read More
Maine was awash in immigrants a century ago. On Aug. 8, 1905, a Bangor Daily News editorial complained that peddlers – mostly Eastern European Jews, Armenians and “Arabians” – were roaming the countryside in large numbers, bothering the natives. “Let one go which way he… Read More
Friday: 9 p.m. Penobscot; Saturday: 1:15 p.m. Kenduskeag, 7:45 p.m. Railroad Bettye LaVette may be the best blues singer you never heard of – but not for long. LaVette is in her prime. She spent four decades singing professionally without achieving the level of commercial… Read More
Friday: 9:45 p.m. Railroad; Saturday: 4 p.m. Railroad, 8 p.m. Kenduskeag; Sunday: 3 p.m. Kenduskeag Wanda Jackson is finally getting the recognition she deserves as “the Queen of Rockabilly.” During her long career, which now spans half a century, she has had numerous Top 40… Read More
Saturday: 3 p.m. Penobscot; Sunday: noon Children’s Area, 3:15 p.m. Penobscot. Master dancer, teacher and choreographer Jothi Raghavan is one of the foremost exponents of Bharata Natyam, a 3,000-year-old southern India dance style. Like most of India’s ancient dances, it is religious in origin. Often… Read More
Friday: 8 p.m. Penobscot; Saturday: 2 p.m. Penobscot, 6:20 p.m. Two Rivers; Sunday: noon Railroad John Cephas and Phil Wiggins are masters of the Piedmont blues, which is rooted in the music of black string bands of Colonial America and is the oldest form of… Read More
Saturday: Noon Penobscot, 3 p.m. Children’s Area; Sunday: 5:15 p.m. Penobscot, 1:15 p.m. Children’s Area The Git-Hoan Dancers perform the dances and songs of the Tsimshian people from the Pacific coastal areas of northern British Columbia and southeastern Alaska. Most of the group’s members, who… Read More
Saturday: 3:30 p.m. Two Rivers, 8:15 p.m. Penobscot; Sunday: 3 p.m. Two Rivers, 5 p.m. Heritage Tony Ballog and his ensemble carry on the vibrant, centuries-old tradition of the Hungarian Gypsy musician. Ballog can trace his musical lineage back through at least 10 generations of… Read More
As you sit in your lawn chair on the waterfront listening to music by Bahama Junkanoo Revue or strut your stuff to Don Vappie and the Creole Jazz Serenaders, you may find yourself asking the question: Is it really possible to have such a good time in, of… Read More
From his surname, you would guess that Steve Riley was a player of Irish music. But no. Riley, a native of Mamou, La., is one of the nation’s top practitioners of Cajun music. He and his Mamou Playboys will be playing Aug. 26-28 at the… Read More
Hometown: Westford, Mass. Birthplace: Madras, southern India googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner = false; for (var i = 0; i < slot_sizes.length; i++) { if (isMobileDevice()) { if (slot_sizes[i][0] googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define… Read More
BANGOR – Though the American Folk Festival will be an admission-free event like its predecessor, the National Folk Festival, attendees who choose to park their vehicles at Bass Park can expect to pay a small fee. Motorists who park at Bass Park will be charged… Read More
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The American Folk Festival is looking for volunteers. Some 800 people are needed to fill 2,100 shifts during the event, set for Aug. 26-28 at the Bangor waterfront. googletag.cmd.push(function () { // Define Slot var slot_sizes = [[300,250]]; var new_slot_sizes = []; var has_banner =… Read More
The time has come for at least 800 of us to commit to making the first American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront as successful as its three-year predecessor, the National Folk Festival. Patterned after the National Folk Festival, the American Folk Festival is Aug. Read More
BANGOR – The name has changed, but expectations are the same. The first American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront will premiere from Aug. 26 to 28, and officials hope it will pick up where the National Folk Festival left off after a three-year run… Read More
Darlene Blake stood outside the dance tent at the Great Lakes Folk Festival last weekend in East Lansing, Mich. Le Vent du Nord, a bouncy Quebecois group, was playing fiddle music, and people were learning step dancing from one of the singers. Blake, a retired operating room nurse,… Read More
While Bangor prepares for the 66th National Folk Festival in August to complete a three-year residency on the waterfront, plans are under way for a similar traditional arts and music festival to take place next summer. The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront in August 2005 will… Read More