The Folklore Society is a University of Chicago student organization for people interested in traditional community-based folk music of all kinds. Our group organizes and presents an internationally-known folk festival, a spring jam session, and various other activities.
All you need to join is a potential interest in traditional music, dance, or other folk arts. We learn as we go along by talking with people, listening to recordings, dancing and playing music with others, working on events, going to concerts, and so on. Some of us play music but many of us just enjoy listening.
Our main project since 1961 has been the University of Chicago Folk Festival, a weekend-long celebration of folk music scheduled the first or second Friday-through-Sunday weekend of February. Consisting of three concerts in Mandel hall, plus workshops, discussions, jam sessions, dances, and more, it brings in people from all over the country.
In the past we've featured Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, French-Canadian, Irish, Scottish, English, Mexican, South American, Native American, Scandinavian, Asian, and African music, along with Blues, Bluegrass, Old-time fiddlers and string bands, Western swing, ballad singers, gospel groups, New Orleans brass bands, cowboy singers, guitar pickers, and more. We've also had storytellers, dancers, a champion hollerer, and a medicine-show man. Some of the musicians are world-renowned, some are old radio stars, and some are relatively unknown.
Is it important to encourage these old kinds of music to stay alive? We think so, because they're not just museum pieces. This is great music with heart, soul, drive, and no particular need to pay attention to marketing executives!
The Folklore Society held its first Folk Festival in 1961. Commercialized "folk music" was popular at that time and the idea of the Festival was to introduce folk fans to the many kinds of genuine traditional music that lay behind the popular versions. To our delight, we found that there were a lot of great old musicians left, and we're still finding them today, along with their children and grandchildren who have grown up playing and appreciating their regional and ethnic styles. While many festivals nowadays present mostly younger musicians and new styles, our emphasis has stayed on the more traditional forms because we and our festival audiences love the music. These are the folks that originally inspired the younger professional performers of today, and they still hit some licks, know a bunch of tunes, or get that certain cadence that the younger guys sometimes can't quite match.
The Folk Festival is primarily supported by concert ticket and t-shirt sales; all other festival activities are free. In keeping with the hometown atmosphere of our events, almost all aspects of the Festival are created by volunteers--we serve meals over the weekend, sell performers' recordings so they can enjoy the show, and present workshops and dances with volunteer staff from the local Chicago community. Visiting performers are accomodated in the homes of local Hyde Park volunteers.
If you'd like to get involved, many people start by helping with the work of running the Festival (thus earning tickets for great seats!), and then become interested in helping with planning. The more of us there are, the more fun we seem to have. If you're interested, talk to any Folklore Society member during the Festival, call us at 773-702-9793, or visit us (here) at www.uofcfolk.org.
