Once upon a time, there was a robust folk festival on the campus of Kent State University, in my hometown of Kent, Ohio. I remember going as a kid, and at least once for a school field trip. There were concerts and workshops devoted to all strains of folk music in America and abroad. That was my first exposure to the Kent State Folk Festival. My fondest memories of the event came much later.
I started playing the banjo in 2008, but didn't start focusing on old-time music until 2009. That year, I learned there was a clawhammer banjo workshop in my old hometown at my alma mater by some guy named Mark Olitsky. So I went. And my jaw fell out of my face and hit the ground with a thud of realization that I had A LOT to learn about playing the banjo.
The next year, I returned to the Kent State Folk Festival to attend Olitsky's workshop again. By then, I had swapped my resonator banjo for an open-back built by a local maker and had just started attending a local old-time session. After the workshop, I sat in on a jam in the Kent State Student Center and met some good old-time musicians in the area who helped further expand my circle of friends within Northeast Ohio's old-time music community.
In 2011, the organizers decided to change the dates of the festival, which I later learned was a common occurrence throughout the event's history. Instead of being in November, they moved it to the end of September. At that time, I wrote this other blog and ran around a lot in skimpy shorts. The new dates of the Kent State Folk Festival conflicted with my sixth consecutive (and final) time running the Akron Marathon.
That was the last year the festival was held on the Kent State campus. In 2012, claiming a lack of support from the university, the organizers moved everything to downtown Kent and the Folk Alley 'Round Town concert series became a bigger focus. The free community workshops were hosted inside various shops. The banjo workshop was held in an art gallery. There were still some people jamming outside around the city, but it wasn't the same.
The last vestiges of the Kent State Folk Festival died out in 2013, when the organizers renamed the event the Kent 'Round Town Music Festival. That was also the last year of the free community workshops. Now, the festival is a single night of concerts in downtown Kent. It was a major loss for the local old-time community, but I didn't really realize how big of an event the Kent State Folk Festival used to be in its heyday.
A couple years after the festival fizzled out, WKSU held a rummage sale. My wife and I went, and flipped through boxes of vinyl and CDs of mostly classical music. I was hoping there'd be some records from the station's once proud folk radio programming, but alas there were not. However, they did have a few leftover T-shirts from the Kent State Folk Festival. I really liked the design of the shirt from 2001, but even cooler (but far less fashionable) was the shirt from 1998 that celebrated the event's 30th anniversary by listing all of the past performers.
Let me highlight a few artists for you:
This year marked five years since the festival's demise, and it would have been the festival's 50th anniversary had it continued. With that in mind, I'll be presenting a monthly series of retrospectives in 2019 to commemorate a once glorious event. I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane. If you have any memories of the Kent State Folk Festival, please share them in the comments.
The next year, I returned to the Kent State Folk Festival to attend Olitsky's workshop again. By then, I had swapped my resonator banjo for an open-back built by a local maker and had just started attending a local old-time session. After the workshop, I sat in on a jam in the Kent State Student Center and met some good old-time musicians in the area who helped further expand my circle of friends within Northeast Ohio's old-time music community.
That was the last year the festival was held on the Kent State campus. In 2012, claiming a lack of support from the university, the organizers moved everything to downtown Kent and the Folk Alley 'Round Town concert series became a bigger focus. The free community workshops were hosted inside various shops. The banjo workshop was held in an art gallery. There were still some people jamming outside around the city, but it wasn't the same.
The last vestiges of the Kent State Folk Festival died out in 2013, when the organizers renamed the event the Kent 'Round Town Music Festival. That was also the last year of the free community workshops. Now, the festival is a single night of concerts in downtown Kent. It was a major loss for the local old-time community, but I didn't really realize how big of an event the Kent State Folk Festival used to be in its heyday.
Let me highlight a few artists for you:
- Doc Watson (1969, 2004)
- New Lost City Ramblers (1969)
- Fuzzy Mountain String Band (1973)
- Tommy Jarrell (1976)
- Red Clay Ramblers (1974, 1976)
- Pete Hoover (1974)
- Highwoods String Band (1975, 1977)
- Standing Rock String Band (1975)
- Joe LaRose with Gary Hawk (1976)
- Hotmud Family (1977)
- Red Mule String Band (1983, 2004)
- Leftwich & Higginbotham (1984)
- Melvin Wine (1984)
- Dan Gellert (1986)
- Carolina Chocolate Drops (2011)
This year marked five years since the festival's demise, and it would have been the festival's 50th anniversary had it continued. With that in mind, I'll be presenting a monthly series of retrospectives in 2019 to commemorate a once glorious event. I hope you enjoy the trip down memory lane. If you have any memories of the Kent State Folk Festival, please share them in the comments.
I've been looking for a recording of a song by Tim Wallace (RIP, funny man) about dogs.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the festival too and was surprised that it doesn't exist anymore. Congrats on running the Akron Marathon too, my best time was 3:35. I stick to shorter races these days turning 40 lol Keep on pickin'!
ReplyDeleteSad to hear about its demise.... I was part of this festival while attending as a grad student in the 90s... The Festival workshops and miniconcerts where my inspiration to do something alike in another folk festival I organized years later at home....
ReplyDeleteI loved the Folk Festival back in the 90s. I used to volunteer just so I could hang out and meet the artists. It was a lot better when it was in February! The workshops were fun. It was cool to run into people just playing in the common areas of the student center. (PS: I LOVED the 1998 shirt. My Mom made pillows of the front and back for me when I wore it out.)
ReplyDeleteI used to cut high school and take the bus to campus for the workshops. Some of my greatest music memories happened there.
ReplyDeleteAs seen in comments to part two, folksinger Gusti co-founded the Festival in 1968 and with Sean Moore (whom she named and gave his start) hosted the first ever event. She remembered contributing ideas from her time on stage in Chicago. I am devastated to report that she died March 31st in a freak accident, as she was looking forward to her concert for Folknet on May 14th, her first since her cancer and the following Pandemic. She was one of a kind and a dear, compassionate, generous, and loving person who gave several well known area performers their starts on stage.
ReplyDelete