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The 15th Annual Chicago Folk & Roots Festival
Dates: July 7-8, 2012
Location: Welles Park Chicago, IL
Hours: 12N-9:30PM both days
Attendance: 30,000
Demographics: Music and dance lovers of all ages
Admission: Donation
Major event components include:
- Top name international and national music headliners
- Two music stages featuring a wide variety of genres: Jazz, Folk, Bluegrass, Honky Tonk, Cajun, African, Blues, Soul, Brazillian and more
- Midwest Fiddle Championship
- Dance Tent
- On-going Jam Sessions
- Kids Music Tent
- Kids Art Tent
- Instrument Petting Zoo
- More than 10 food booths
- More than 35 retail booths
Event Overview:
A two-day paradise...
Every July for the last 14 years, one of Chicago's most unique and precious assets, the Old Town School of Folk Music, puts on a festival that, for a certain segment of the population, is the highlight of the summer. That segment of the population is defined as MUSIC LOVERS- lovers of folk, jazz, hip hop, Bluegrass, African, Blues, Honky Tonk, Latin, Rock, etcetera, etcetera. More than 30,000 music lovers take part in what can best be described as a two-day trip to musical paradise.
Appropriately, the event kicks off on Saturday Noon with the Midwest Fiddle Championships on the Mainstage. This competition features some of the very best fiddle players in the country- maybe even in the world. and puts everyone in the perfect mood for an entire weekend of high quality live music across almost every musical genre. Throughout the festival, the Mainstage is the hub of Folk & Roots- featuring a continuous, high quality line-up of diverse sounds and grooves performed by top name musical artists from across the globe.
But the Mainstage is only part of the whole Folk & Roots experience...
The even features a wildly popular Dance Tent that offers free participatory lessons and workshops visitors to try out from Cajun to West African Dance, Tango to Zumba, Brazilian to Hip Hop, and much more; all to the tune of music provided by high quality musicians.
Folk & Roots also features on-going jam sessions in the Gazebo that welcome all musicians to participate.
Kid's Music Tent features performances by visiting artists, faculty and students, and a Kid's Art Tent offers arts projects for the whole family. An Instrument Petting Zoo gives kids of all ages the opportunity to try out a wide range of cool instruments.
One of the newest and most colorful elements of Folk & Roots is Nuestra Musica Tent. It is the result of a research project launched by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and is co-sponsored by the Old Town School of Folk Music. The Folk & Roots staging of Nuestra Musica includes live performances, interviews, and dance workshops by the artists, children's workshops, arts and crafts, and some of the displays from the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.