A shot of a previous Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing that the city used in its 2010-2011 Community Guide. Today and the next three days, the city will host a smaller version of the Folk Festival to gauge the community's appetite for reviving the festival.

Enjoy “A Taste of Folk Festival” Today Through Sunday

It’s been eight years since the Great Lakes Folk Festival brought nearly 80,000 people to the downtown streets of East Lansing for a weekend of live music and culture.

But the popular community event – or at least a smaller version of it – is back. From Thursday, Aug. 7 through Sunday, Aug 10, the city will hold “A Taste of Folk Festival.” The event comes after the city assembled a committee last year to explore the possibility of reviving the popular community gathering.

While the scope of this year’s event is much smaller than previous iterations, the “taste” festival will help set the stage to possibly bring the bigger festival back, said Colleen Armitage, community events specialist with the City of East Lansing. 

A flyer the city is using to promote the “Taste of Folk Festival” event.

“The suggestion was made that we bring this folk festival back,” Armitage said. “The City started an exploratory commission to see if the community would be interested in having this again, bringing the festival back to life. The Commission worked for several months and gave my department their suggestions. There wasn’t a whole lot of time to make their whole dream happen, but we did cultivate quite a few performers that we think would make a really great addition to having kind of a preview of the festival.”

Throughout the small festival Thursday through Sunday, Armitage will be strolling the streets with a questionnaire for attendees. Questions will ask concert-goers what they like, what they don’t like, and what they would be interested in seeing in a future folk festival.”

“We’re just trying to gauge the community interest on if we should bring this back, and we would love to bring this back,” she said. “But with anything, we have to have the community to back it. Right now, this event is just a taste, a small sampling of many different genres of bands to see and gauge the interest.”

Armitage said the City would love to include more music, workshops, and vendors in future iterations of the event, but is proud of the flavor of Folk Festival being offered this year.  

An artist applies henna to an attendee’s hand at the 2015 Great Lakes Folk Festival. (ELi file photo)

“On Thursday, we are going to have a salsa workshop with a performer, and the rest of the three days, we’ll have performers too,” she said. “Our goal is to add many more workshops and vendors that are culturally beneficial. We want to make this big, but we want to grow smartly and we don’t want to do something if it’s just not going to be supported.”

The Great Lakes Folk Festival was not the only folk festival that became a thing of the past after COVID-times, Armitage said. But what makes it unique compared to other similar festivals is that the event did not just include traditional folk or bluegrass music, rather it celebrated the melting pot of American society — showcasing Blues, jazz, rock, Latin, Cuban, and other worldly sounds. 

“I think the one thing that really resonated with the community is the fact that we brought in so many different genres of music, and that this event exposed people to many different things,” Armitage said of the Great Lakes Folk Festival.

While the “taste” festival will be small, there are still several talented performers slated to play in East Lansing over the next few days. The performances are scheduled as follows:

Thursday, Aug. 7 from 6 to 8 p.m.: Enjoy Albert EL Fresco Game Night, with musical performances from Sultanes de Ritmo, a Detroit-based band playing regional Mexican music, and a salsa lecture/demo and performance by Yesenia Murillo and Lorenzo Lopez at the Ann Street Plaza. 

Friday, Aug. 8 from 6 to 8 p.m.: Rev. Robert Jones and Matt Watroba, a folk and roots duo, will perform as part of the Summer Concert Series at the Ann Street Plaza. 

Saturday, Aug. 9 from 6 to 8 p.m.: The Smokin’ Dobroleles, a West Michigan Americana  band, mashing together bluegrass, country, hip hop, reggae, blues, jazz and rock, will play at the Ann Street Plaza. 

Sunday, Aug. 10: Dan Dan Laird, founder of Angry Talent Entertainment, and TM Olson, Lansing troubadour, will perform at the East Lansing Farmers Market from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Valley Court Park.

“What’s nice about the farmer’s market performance is that it’s much more low-key,” Armitage said. “You don’t have to stay and stop to listen to the artist, you can just peruse the farmer’s market, get some fresh fruits and vegetables, have the kids play in the park, and you can still do other things while listening to the band.”

The events are free, family-friendly, and open to the public. There are no tickets, registration or RSVPs required. It is recommended that you bring a chair to the concerts. 

“I know that certain things take time to build, and we’re kind of starting from scratch again,” Armitage said. “I just hope that people have a good time, and we have good weather, and everybody ends up being happy at ‘taste of folk festival.’”