Richmond Folk Festival music and dance guide
The Folk Festival strums into town on October 9th and doesn’t strum out of town until October 11th. Here’s each musical and dance group at a glance.
This image was captured at the 69th National Folk Festival, held in Richmond, VA from October 12 – 14, 2007.
The leaves have begun to change, and with it, so does what we crave to do on the weekends. From summer cookouts to Cambodian dance troupes, that’s our trajectory. Because we’re Richmonders, and the Folk Festival is our THING.
The FF has a big responsibility this year, as it might be the only thing that can save us from slipping into permanent post-UCI despair. Let the talented individuals from all over the world buoy you, fellow citizens! We still know how to have fun! We INVENTED fun1!
Here’s what you can expect from this year’s Folk Fest. You can find all performance times
The Music
Ahava Raba
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 12:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 3:00 PM, Altria Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 1:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 3:00 PM, Altria Stage
- Music: Klezmer, cantoral
- Hails from: New York City
- Interesting fact: “In the Jewish faith, cantors play an important role in the synagogue: together with the rabbi, cantors lead the congregation in prayer, they teach students to read from the Torah, and if ordained, they may conduct wedding and funeral services.”
The Alt
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 6:30 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 3:30 PM, VCU Health Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 5:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 5:15 PM, The Community Foundation Stage
- Music: Traditional Irish
- Hails from: New York and Asheville, by way of Dublin and Dundalk
- Interesting fact: “The group takes its name from The Alt, a storied glen on the slopes of Knocknarea in County Sligo, said to be the final resting place of the ancient Irish warrior-queen Maeve, and the place where the three first met to rehearse.”
Amargue Bachata Quintet with Andre Veloz
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 1:00 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 4:30 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 5:15 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage
- Music: Dominican bachata
- Hails from: New York by way of Dominican Republic
- Interesting fact: “Amargue”means bitterness, and when applied to Dominican music, it describes the bittersweet emotions of love, especially unrequited love. In Veloz’s words, ‘Bachata is sensual, it gets to your heart.'”
Bruce Daigrepont Cajun Band
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 7:45 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 3:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 5:45 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 5:15 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion
- Music: Cajun
- Hails from: New Orleans and Avoyelles Parish, Louisiana
- Interesting fact: Daigrepont grew up in a household rooted in strong Cajun traditions, and his songs are in French!
The Campbell Brothers
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 8:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 4:00 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday October 10th, 7:15 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 3:15 PM, The Community Foundation Stage
- Music: African American gospel/steel guitar
- Hails from: Rochester, New York
- Interesting fact: “The signature sound [of steel guitar] remains one characterized by single-note passages that uncannily imitate African American vocal styles.”
The Church Sisters – Virginia alert!
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 12:05 PM, Union Bank & Trust/University of Richmond Virginia Folklife Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 1:30 PM, CarMax Family Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 4:45 PM, VCU Health Stage
- Music: Bluegrass gospel
- Hails from: Galax, Virginia
- Interesting fact: The twin sisters who front this band–their last name is actually Church! That sure is convenient. They were born in Dickenson County, moved to Haysi, then Danville, and are now settled in Galax, “a community deeply steeped in bluegrass, old-time, and mountain gospel music.”
Danny Paisley & the Southern Grass
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 2:00 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 5:30 PM, VCU Health Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 4:15 PM, The Community Foundation Stage
- Music: Bluegrass
- Hails from: Delaware and Pennsylvania
- Interesting fact: These guys are committed to sticking to the bluegrass sounds of the 1950s, eschewing the “slicker, more contemporary sounds” of the genre’s more modern performers. Watch the above video and pretend you’re hearing it through a crackling old radio recording. Fun!
Deacon John’s Jump Blues
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 5:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 7:15 PM, Altria Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 4:00 PM, Altria Stage
- Music: Jump blues
- Hails from: New Orleans
- Interesting fact: Jump blues is that music you didn’t know the name of, but that makes you want to dance while wearing a vintage 1940s costume.
DJ Grandmaster Flash
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 8:15 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 2:00 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion
- Music: Hip hop
- Hails from: New York City
- Interesting fact: It’s Grandmaster Flash! GRANDMASTER FLASH! THAT is the interesting fact!
Dudley Laufman & His Barn Dance Band
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 12:00 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 12:00 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion
- Music: New England barn dances & contra dance
- Hails from: Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and some musicians in the band are from Virginia!
- Interesting fact: Dudley Laufman basically singlehandedly brought this form of dancing back–it’s not the square dancing you’re thinking of, it’s more like what you’d imagine John and Abigail Adams dancing to. Or maybe their more rural neighbors. Also, Laufman is 90 years old, so now is the time to catch his act!
Ensemble Shanbehzadeh
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 12:00 PM, VCU Health Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 8:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 4:15 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage
- Music: Traditional Persian music
- Hails from: Bushehr, Iran, by way of Paris
- Interesting fact: “Swirling across the stage, falling into trance, and throwing the pipes on top of his head, Shanbehzadeh’s dynamic performances inexorably draw audiences into his musical world.” Whoa, this father-son duo is super talented.
Feedel Band
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 5:15 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 7:00 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 3:15 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion
- Music: Ethio-jazz
- Hails from: Addis Ababa, via Washington, D.C.
- Interesting fact: Did you know Washington, D.C. was known as “Little Ethiopia?” Did you know “ethio-jazz” was a thing??
Grupo Rebolú
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 9:00 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Saturday, October 10th, 1:15 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Saturday, October 10th, 8:30 PM, Altria Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 1:00 PM, Altria Stage
- Music: Afro-Colombian
- Hails from: Palenque de San Basilio, Colombia via New York City
- Interesting fact: “Along Colombia’s Caribbean coast people of African, Spanish, and indigenous heritage have been intermixing for centuries, resulting in a blending of cultures across many aspects of life – from cuisine and language to traditional music, instruments, and dance forms.”
The Harris Brothers
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 12:00 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 1:30 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 12:45 PM, VCU Health Stage
- Music: Appalachian blues
- Hails from: Lenoir, North Carolina
- Interesting fact: “In the early 1990s Reggie took up a suitcase kick drum to pound out a baseline beat. That beaten-up suitcase, as much as the brothers’ versatility, has become their trademark.”
Reverend John Wilkins
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 2:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 2:00 PM, Altria Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 4:15, Dominion Dance Pavilion
- Music: Blues, gospel
- Hails from: Memphis
- Interesting fact: Being a preacher and a traveling gospel/blues musician sounds like a lot of work, but Reverend John Wilkins is also a biker?! His congregation consists of the King Riders Motorcycle Club.
Riyaaz Qawwali
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 8:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Saturday October 10th, 2:30 PM, VCU Health Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 4:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 12:00 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage
- Music: South Asian qawwali
- Hails from: India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh via Houston and Austin, Texas
- Interesting fact: “Vocals start slow, singing of love, devotion, and gratitude. As the music builds through repetition, singers engage in call and response, and the beat of clapping and thetabla hand drum grow quicker. At its height, the music moves audiences and performers together into ecstatic trance.” A lot of trances at the Folk Festival, guys!
Shemekia Copeland
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 8:45 PM, Altria Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 2:15 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Saturday, October 10th, 6:15 PM, Altria Stage
- Music: Blues
- Hails from: Harlem by way of Chicago
- Interesting fact: Copeland was a teen sensation on the blues scene, and overcame crippling shyness when her father’s health declined and she decided to do it for him. Her father, by the way, his Texas guitarist Johnny Copeland–he passed away in 1997.
Sleepy LaBeef
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 7:30 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Saturday, October 10th, 3:30 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 1:00 PM, Dominion Dance Pavilion AND Sunday, October 11th, 5:15 PM, Altria Stage
- Music: Rockabilly
- Hails from: Smackover, Arkansas
- Interesting fact: LaBeef received his nickname in school, due to a lazy eye. His real last name is “LaBeff,” but he changed it to “LaBeef,” presumably because “Sleepy LaBeef” is the best possible name for anyone ever.
Sun Ra Arkestra
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 8:30 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 2:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage
- Music: Big band free jazz
- Hails from: Saturn by way of Philadelphia
- Interesting fact: The late Sun Ra formed this group, which traditionally wears a mixture of Egyptian and space-age stuff, and the themes of their wild free jazz revolves around the sun, like many other planetary beings do. There’s nothing like Sun Ra Arkestra.
The Virginia Luthiers — Virginia alert!
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 6:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 12:00 PM, Altria Stage
- Music: Appalachian
- Hails from: Southwest Virginia
- Interesting fact: “Some of the finest instruments in the world are being made in Southwest Virginia, where Appalachian hardwood forests provide sought-after woods rich in tone.” These guys pick those very instruments.
Zedashe
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 3:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 2:45 PM, VCU Health Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 4:00 PM, CarMax Family Stage
- Music: Georgian polyphonic chants, songs & dances
- Hails from: Sighnaghi, Republic of Georgia
- Interesting fact: Georgian traditional music may be the earliest polyphonic music to come out of the Christian world!
The Dance
Cambodian American Heritage Dance Troupe
- Performance: Friday, October 9th, 7:30 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 12:15 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 6:00 PM, The Community Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 1:00 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage
- Dance: Khmer classical dance
- Hails from: Cambodia by way of various places around the country
- Interesting fact: Many Cambodian master dancers and musicians fled to the U.S. after the horrors of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Madame Tes, who grew up on the Cambodian Royal Palace grounds and began studying dance with her aunt, who was a palace dancer, at the age of 14, brought together this group of Cambodian musicians and dancers. And she did it just for the Folk Festival!
Leonardo Sandoval
- Performance: Saturday, October 10th, 1:00 PM, VCU Health Stage AND Saturday, October 10th, 7:45 PM, WestRock Foundation Stage AND Sunday, October 11th, 3:45 PM, VCU Health Stage
- Dance: Tap
- Hails from: Sāo Paolo, Brazil by way of New York City
- Interesting fact: Sandoval prefers to tap on the street (or in subway stations, High Line park, wherever) because that’s the most authentic way to tap–out in public, maybe doing tap battles with another dancer.
Oneida Nation Social & Smoke Dancers
Zedashe
Also check out a Bolivian Dance Parade, departing at 6:30 PM on Saturday, October 9th from the Altria Stage!
- Unsupported fact. ↩
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Susan Howson
Susan Howson is managing editor for this very website. She writes THE BEST bios.
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