National Folk Fest 2022

The 81st National Folk Festival was held in Salisbury, Maryland Friday, August 26 through Sunday August 28.  We volunteered Saturday and Sunday all day.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of on our feet time since we'd signed up as  "bucket brigade" volunteers.  Bucket brigade volunteers walk around with a big bucket hoping for donations to help fund the next folk festival.  The next one for Salisbury will be the Maryland Folk Festival and not the national one.  The festivals are free so the donations help a lot.  As bucket brigade volunteers we don't get pushy but are encouraged to dance and have fun.  So I did.  I noticed that my dancing certainly increased donations and that just plain walking quietly up and down the isles during breaks between musical numbers increased donations.  Many people who hadn't donated the last four or five times I walked by ended up donating.  It was an interesting phenomena which tells reinforces what I already knew - that perseverance pays off, repetition wins the day, just keep giving opportunities without necessarily making eye contact but always smiling. 

We had expected singer/songwriter folk musicians like we used to host in house concerts over the years in Baltimore and Annapolis.  Those musicians would be singletons or small groups.  There weren't any of those at the folk fest which disappointed us.  But that's not to say we didn't enjoy the groups playing at the folk fest.  It's really an amazing event and so wonderful that its three days of free music where you donate whatever you can or nothing.  Suggested donation each day is $10 which is a really amazing deal.  

My feet were sore at the end of the first day though I can walk for miles and am used to it.  I wore a pair of sneakers that I hadn't really tried out to any extent so now I know they aren't up to the job.  The next day I wore my good distance running shoes and no problem.  It was hot as hades both days but cooled down with a horrendous gushing rain storm and lots of lightening for a couple hours on Saturday where things were put on hold and people were told to shelter in nearby buildings due to the lightening.  At the start of that storm we headed back to the volunteer tent to check in and through the ankle deep rain on the street and with torrents washing down from the sky I danced in and twirled around to the laughter of the volunteer tent volunteers.  A girl has to have fun. 

Below is the Maryland Spirituals Initiative Ensemble.  The music was beautiful. A couple got up and left from the front row when the Kentavius Jones, the group leader and music professor at Salisbury, began to describe how black spirituals came about during slavery after the first number.  The woman had on a baseball hat with the 1776 flag on it which has been used of late, unfortunately, by the white supremacists.  I don't know why people like that were even in the audience to begin with.   

Dave ended up working back stage at the Maryland Traditions Folklife stage all day on Sunday due to changing needs or perhaps a volunteer not showing up.  

We really enjoyed this volunteer opportunity and the other volunteers we met.  It was a lot of fun and well worth it.  I hope we are available to help out next year at the Maryland Folk Festival.