Alaska Folk Festival
The Alaska Folk Festival is an annual celebration of folk music of Alaska, the Northwestern United States and Canada. It is organized by The Alaska Folk Festival Inc., which is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the encouragement, support and perpetuation of folk music in Alaska. The festival is held in Juneau, Alaska, most commonly in April and lasts for 7 days. Its functioning is supported solely by volunteers and donations.
The Festival has performances from a variety of solo artists and musical groups, and it provides workshops for people interested in the music. There are also dances, jams, singer/songwriter showcases and other events. All events are free to the public and there are no auditions for the acts.
The only limitation on musical style is the 15 minutes allocated for each act. Performers are not paid, with the exception of one guest artist who is selected every year to perform for 45 minutes. There are 9 concerts over 7 days with about 15 acts at each concert.
43rd Alaska Folk Festival is over, and we are dreaming about next year
The 43rd annual Alaska Folk Festival will be April 3–9, 2017. The guest artists will be The Murphy Beds (Eamon O’Leary & Jefferson Hamer) who will present traditional and original folk songs, rooted in the style of the Irish folk revival.