Exit National Folk Festival, Enter NC Folk Festival

The three year run of the National Folk Festival in Greensboro has come to an end and as it turns out, contrary to what I said last year, the big players in Greensboro do have a plan for next year and beyond, and it's called the North Carolina Folk Festival.

That was a big surprise to me given that I thought for sure that the city's leaders were going all in with the still unbuilt and structureless performing arts center and also I thought that Guilford County's long reputation of naysaying out of the ordinary stuff would have precluded such an event.

While I don't have any issues with the pending spinoff, I do have to question the logistics and public support. First, the bus issues have to be fixed because they were terrible this year. Instead of continuing the increased frequencies (they were every 30 minutes during the festival in '15 and three routes ran every 7-8 minutes while the other routes ran every 30 minutes last year), the regular hourly schedule was used. 

Second, a friend of mine pointed out last year some of the inner workings of the Greensboro arts scene and said that the midsized organizations had been getting less funding due to ArtsGreensboro giving all of its money to the National Folk Festival. I don't believe that 100 percent of ArtsGreensboro funding will go the NCFF, but if it does, then there could be trouble with other arts organizations in town--a prime example is that the Greensboro Fringe Festival almost went out of business due to it falling short of fundraising goals earlier this year.

Beyond the National Folk Festival

It's now two down, one to go with Greensboro's three-year run hosting the National Folk Festival.

Edited on 9-25-16: The Living Art America Championship move from Atlanta to Greensboro looks to be permanent.

The real question is what will the Greensboro arts scene look like around this time in 2018? With the Folk Festival gone, the 17 Days Festival will likely revert back to a mid-September to early October timeframe versus its temporary early to late September timeframe adjusted for the NFF. 

I’m not sure what will happen with the East-West BBQ Festival. It was on North Davie Street for its inaugural event in 2013. Construction around that area moved it to the N&R parking lot in 2014. Last year’s event was moved to the West McGee Street parking lot. It was canceled this year and presumably next year (whether that cancellation is NFF related or not is uncertain because the promoter has had issues with people in Greensboro criticizing the barbecue festival when other cities have had no such problems with similar events).

The Living Art America bodypainting championships are here in the Triad this year but it’s to be determined whether it will find a permanent home here after being held in Atlanta for its first three years.

The Tate Street Festival is basically untouchable given its four-decade long run so the fact that its dates have been altered not only due to the NFF but also the LAA body painting event will have no effect on it.

According to this bit, the National Folk Festival spawns regional festivals from time to time—Maine, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Montana all come to mind. Given that Greensboro has spent tens of millions on a white elephant known as the Steven Tanger Performing Arts Center, it is highly unlikely that there will be a folk festival in North Carolina in 2018--the same year that the STPAC is scheduled to open. Coordinating such an event is way beyond the comprehension of this area’s so-called leaders who have historically paid lip service to the arts community anyway. Whereas the NFF serves the public and attracts out of town visitors for free, the STPAC will primarily attract the area’s well off while pricing out the rest of the population.