Ayla McDonald
Reporter
The 10th annual Champaign-Urbana Folk & Roots Festival took place in Urbana, IL last weekend from the 18th to the 20th of October.
A three day-long event to celebrate the rich tradition of folk art in the Champaign-Urbana community, the Folk & Roots Festival brings together a wide variety of folk music and dance genres that have developed in America with roots in International culture.
An ongoing tradition for the Champaign-Urbana community, the Folk & Roots Festival is run by volunteers and occurred in different venues all over downtown Urbana, including the C4A Community Center for the Arts, Sipyard, the Cohen Building, Urbana Free Library, Urbana First United Methodist Church, the Rose Bowl, and the Iron Post.
“Folk music festivals wake up your spirit!” said Sue Jones, Parkland Math Faculty and Folk and Roots Festival volunteer of 3 years.
Consisting of a number of events, the festival sported a variety of musical opportunities, from performances by local and traveling artists to dance workshops and song-circles.
Presentations on the history of American folk music were given, instrument- making occurred, murder-ballads were discussed and analyzed, sea-shanties and 60’s ballads were sung around open fires, bluegrass and Irish song-circles filled buildings with music and put smiles on the faces of both musicians and listeners.
These and many other memorable moments occurred, creating warm memories for festival goers to think fondly of for years to come.
“Folk music has such a rich history; it’s a music for the people written by the people. I think there’s something very democratic about it,” said first-time festival goer Harrison Lindholm. “Everyone here is very welcoming and seems to be having lots of fun.”
Largely volunteer run, the CU Folk & Roots Festival is dependent on community involvement.
Volunteering is a great way to participate in the Festival with people who also love folk art and is a way to gain free access to the Festival’s paid events.
“Folk music is so often people doing music because they love it,” Jones said. “Its people doing music with people. I’m volunteering, but still getting to participate in the jams makes me feel like I can do this if I practice.”
There is a large folk music and dance scene in the Champaign-Urbana community that supplies the Festival with many of its volunteers.
The local folk-scene of Chambana offers much opportunity for members of the local community to come together to make communal music or to have fun learning traditional dances on a regular weekly basis.
“There are all kinds of dance in this town,” said John Hanson, a returning Folk & Roots Festival Volunteer of 8 years and active member of the local dance scene. “I always like encouraging people to try different styles of dance by cross-dancing. There are sub-dance communities all over town.”
While the folk scene in Chambana is alive and well, Hanson and Jones are concerned about a cultural movement in America away from our folk roots.
“Music brings people together to rise up for good and gets community spirit to start happening. Its less consumerist, less about what you own and more about who are. Participating in folk music is freeing in that sense,” Jones said. “It’s a way of handing down what our ancestors knew from generation to generation in a way the internet just can’t convey.”
To Hanson, keeping traditional dance alive is just as important.
“There used to be more dancing years ago; I think over the decades it keeps tapering off. People need to get away from their screens and onto the dance floors,” Hanson said. “The need for better venues for dance is one of the hardest things the Folk and Roots Festival has had to deal with.”
But despite the drawbacks to American folk culture with ever-increasing technological advancement, the folk-loving people of Chambana continue to sing, dance and laugh together, and hope more people will join them.
“Folk & Roots is marvelous,” Hanson said. “We need people to come out and enjoy the performances. It’s a missed opportunity for so much of the community.”
Information about American Contra dances and English Country dances in Champaign-Urbana can be found at urbana-contra.org, and a weekly newsletter with music events around town can be subscribed for at maden.us9.list-manage.com. Information about the CU Folk & Roots Festival and the artists who performed there can be found at folkandroots.org.
