Fox Valley Folk Fest Coming This Weekend!

The 35th Annual Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival starts with fun on Saturday and runs two full days over Labor Day weekend. From 11 a.m.  to 6 p.m. Sunday and Monday, Sept. 4-5, the music of dulcimers, guitars, banjos, and fiddles will fill the air at Island Park along with folk tales and storytelling by performers from more than 15 states.

Juel Ulven is the driving force behind the festival, having organized the event since 1977 at the height of the disco craze. A few hundred people attended then, but Ulven expects more than 5,000 people each day this year.

While folk music may not be commercially popular, Ulven is driven by a sense of preservation.

"(Folk Music) is an incredibly important part of our heritage," he said. "It's the only ties we have to a lot of history."

He cites the findings of studies on collections of early ballads, some originating in the 1600s. These lyrical ballads were passed along through generations from peasants; the origins remain unknown. Ulven said what is surprising about the findings is that ballads collected by two different sources, several hundred miles apart, and sometimes from hundreds of years apart, differ by only a few words in a song that's sometimes 15 minutes long.

This truly is a festival with something for everyone, with entertainment on eight stages running continuously with concerts, hands-on teaching, storytelling, crafters and various workshops. Craftspeople will display and sell handmade instruments, and records and tapes of the performers along with folk art displays of weaving, stained glass, tinware, and pottery.

At 7 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3, WFMT radio (8.7 FM) will broadcast a special two-hour show live from the Unitarian Universalist Society, 102 S. Second St. in downtown Geneva.

The Midnight Special festival concert will several of the artists who will appear over the weekend (see www.midnightspecial.org Folkstage schedule for more information.)

Sunday from 6 to 7:30 p.m. visitors can enjoy an Old Time Community Barn Dance followed by ghost stories in the big tent.

For more information, go to www.foxvalleyfolk.com for a list of performers and details and location for the workshops. Donations are encouraged at several booths at the festival with a suggested admission for adults at $15 per day, $10 for teens and seniors. Under 12 are free.

The festival is sponsored by The Fox Valley Folklore Society in cooperation with the Geneva Park District. Island Park is on the east side of the Fox River, south of Route 38. Free parking is available at the Kane Government Center at 719 S. Batavia Ave. (Route 31) and in the commuter parking areas nearby.

Editor's note: Some of this story is updated from an article that appeared last year in Geneva Patch. (Hard to believe it's been a year already.)

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