"Music, dance, and tradition from across America meet the Big Sky", boasts the title from the 71st National Folk Festival website. A free-entry event, it is difficult to say for sure how many people attended, but estimates range from 100,000 to 125,000 over the 3 day weekend event. The diverse crowd was mostly mellow, happy, and engaged. This is the second year the Festival was held in Butte and it will return for a third next year before relocating to another U.S. city. The first National Folk Festival was presented in 1934, and it is the oldest multicultural festival in the nation.
"Music and dance traditions from every part of the nation are on display, performed by the country’s finest traditional artists. Audiences are treated to authentic blues, gospel, polka, cowboy, bluegrass, klezmer, old-time, Cajun, rhythm and blues, mariachi, western swing, zydeco and more. Continuous performances on seven stages celebrate Native American, Celtic, Acadian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Hispanic, Eastern European, African and Pacific Island cultures."
(http://www.nationalfolkfestival.com/2009)
Serria Hall (17 yrs old) on mandolin and her young band, wowed the audience with their tight playing and Allyson Krause type singing and harmonies.
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