The Inaugural Portland Folk Festival

Details

Parent Category: Other Festivals

Category: Music

Published on Thursday, 24 June 2010 00:33

Written by Film Festival Traveler Staff

The Inaugural Portland Folk Festival has announced the preliminary line-up. A list of amazing artists will grace the stages of this year's inaugural festival.

The Portland Folk Festival will offer a rich and diverse sampling of music, art, craft, film, educational workshops and talks in handfuls of fantastic locations in Portland, Oregon August 20 - 22, 2010. Portland Folk Festival will be held over four days, with a different neighborhood focus each day.  Music venues, pubs, galleries and interesting spaces throughout Downtown Portland, Alberta Arts District, Mississippi Avenue and Southeast Portland will host events through the day and night all weekend.

The Portland Folk Festival is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the world's folk and traditional music, and to the vibrant community, forward-thinking quality of life, and spectacular natural beauty of our treasured home of Portland. With one foot firmly rooted in preserving and celebrating the lessons of the past, and one in working toward a sustainable future, we are dedicated to the study, evolution, expression and celebration of the music of the people. This is a wonderful opportunity for the community of Portland to come together and discover a world of music that's happening in their own backyard

Tickets for Portland Folk Festival are being sold online for $45. You will receive a badge that will get you into every show and event during the festival. Tickets for individual concerts will be available through each venue's online box office or at the door day of show.

About the Founders:

Development Director:Slim Moon is the founder of the legendary indie label Kill Rock Stars. Over the years he has worked in music in nearly every way imaginable - musician, record label owner, producer, roadie, booking agent, retailer, manager, festival organizer. Along the way, he has helped nurture the careers of dozens of bands and solo artists including Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney, The Decemberists, and Thao Nguyen. Raised in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, folk music is Slim's first and most enduring musical love.

Managing Director Amanda Stark was immersed in politics and folk music from an early age. Growing up in Canada, her interest in writers like Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie and the beat poets, drew her to the spoken word and folk movement in the United States in the early nineties. She spent several years touring internationally in the political punk folk band, Stark Raving Chandler, and went on to work as booking agent, promoter, publicist and artist manager. Amanda has worked with many exceptional artists, including Dan Bern, The Be Good Tanyas, Geoff Berner and Bitch and Animal. With a great appreciation for the wonderful festivals she has attended, and a grass roots approach to music business, Amanda has brought a long held dream of building a folk festival to her adopted home of Portland, Oregon.

Chantelle Hylton Simmons, Artistic Director, was raised on live music as hte daughter of a jazz singer,. While developing a career in news journalism in the spring of 2000 in Portland Oregon, she threw a party at the Medicine Hat Gallery, and was hired on the spot to take over the booking. Over the next 7 years in Portland she booked a show every night in almost a dozen music venues. In 2005 she started her own concert promotion company, Blackbird Presents, and with partner Mike McGonigal founded the Halleluwah Festival of Enthused Arts. In spring of 2007 while on vacation in New York City, she was offered the Senior Talent Buyer position at Knitting Factory, and spent almost three years in NYC until she missed Portland too much to stay away. She still books Brooklyn's Northside Festival (350+ bands over 4 days in more than 30 music venues), but can now do so from the 6 acres she and her family are developing into an organic farm and retreat space in Woodland, Washington.

• < Prev
• Next >