What To Know About The 38th Annual Lowell Folk Festival

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Drew Mamholland here in the WBZ newsroom, thirty
eight years and still going strong for the loll Folk Festival.
Levelysses joins us. Now, Hello, Lee, how are you hello?
How are you?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Drew?

Speaker 1 (00:11):
Doing great? What a run for a Lol. It's an
exciting time of year, isn't it.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Yes, it's my favorite. And it's so busy and so
crazy and we're so excited.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
You know, we were talking about this yesterday. It is
amazing the amount of people that flood the streets. Obviously,
you know there's a bunch of venues, but I mean
they're just packed streets for this whole weekend. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:33):
Yeah, you know, and it's great. It's one of those
things where people come and make it a part of
their annual tradition. We have people that come in from California,
from Illinois, and of course all across the Merrimack Valley.
It really is a point of pride for the city
of Lowell, and we love it. It's a great it's
a great festival.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
And you're not kidding. I mean you look around all
the cars the park around Lolled on that weekend. I
mean it is there's license plates from all over people
travel to come to this thing.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
Yeah. I always get one lady from California who tells
me about her trip every year, and she's always emailing
me early to ask for the schedule and to know
exactly where she's going to be at each stage for
what band.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
You've got to love that. And of course the price
is right. This is a free festival.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Yep, free festival. It's been free since its inception in
ninety seven, so we're happy to keep it that way.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Very good three days, it's three days of food. That's
the other thing too. Food is there. It's amazing food
from all over music of course, from different countries and
cultures all around the world. This is a festival in
the true sense of the word.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
It is, and I'm not gonna lie. The food is
maybe my favorite part. We have twenty two food vendors
this year, and they are all local nonprofits from across
the northern Massachusetts area. So they represent schools, they represent churches,
they represent community groups, and they're all selling their sort

(02:02):
of natural cultural cuisine. And it's you know, I have
my favorites. I gotta make sure I get over to
the Armenian kent and get my Armenian burger. I gotta
get my lumpia from our Filipino friends. I gotta get
you know this, playing that thing the other thing, and

(02:22):
you get to have all of that wonderful cuisine and
then just sit and bask in all of the incredible music.
We have Solos, which is an amazing Irish group coming
this year. We have our own loll Anchor dancers who
will be performing. They are now officially our longest running

(02:44):
performing group. They have performed six times at the Lolso Festival.
And I love to watch the Cambodian traditional dance. It's
so interesting and it's so symbolic, with every hand gesture
and foot motion and pose representing another piece of the story.

(03:04):
It's beautiful. And then you know, make sure you get
over to hear the Cajun band in the dance tent.
Basola is coming this year and they are an incredible
Cajun group. We have. Oh my new favorite is Red
Barat which is Indian South Asian group that is percussion

(03:33):
with the dull drum which is a double headed drum
and uh brass and it's just it's incredible. It's really,
really cool.

Speaker 1 (03:44):
U Lee Melysses. Directing a festival like this, I know
is not easy. So much work goes into it. It's
a whole year's worth, maybe even more if you really
think about when you started trying to get some of
these acts and all that. But it must bring a
lot of pride. I mean, I believe you guys are
what the second largest free folk festival in the US.

Speaker 2 (04:01):
I mean we are, We're second largest, and the only
reason where the second largest is because we're fewer days,
which is what I kind of take. If we were
a week long, we'd be the largest. But because we're
only three days, we're the second largest. And a lot
of pride in that.

Speaker 1 (04:18):
I bet you do it. Somebody pointed out to me
the other day. You compare it to you know, the
Newport Folk Festival which is going on, I mean, the
amount of people that you guys bring in compared to that.
I mean, obviously Newport is big, but just they have
size restraints. You guys are fielding just crowds like these
massive crowds. It is incredible for a folk festival.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, we're really proud. We bring in around one hundred
and fifty thousand people every year. And like I said
at the beginning, you know, because it's people from all
over the country coming to Massachusetts and two Lowell, they
really get to experience everything the Commonwealth has to offer.

(04:57):
And so it's a great boon for Lowell. It's a
great boon for Massachusetts and for you know, southern New
Hampshire because we're right there. We're a border city, and
you know, I'm just it's such a pride, you know,
it's such a pride of place for the city and

(05:18):
for the community. I don't know what it would be
like if Lowell didn't have a folk festival, right the
festival is almost as old as I am, so I
don't know what it would be like for the festival
to not happen every year.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, let's make sure we don't even consider those thoughts here.
It's such a lovely weekend. Leave Alysses. Thank you so
much for taking sometime. I know you'll be busy, but
try and take in some of that music and go
get yourself some great meals there this weekend too.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yep, absolutely, thank you so much. Drew.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
All right, leave alyss Is. My name is Drew mam Holland.
Here in the WBZ newsroom Boston,