NEWS RELEASE
Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu)
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466
7/14/2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NATCHITOCHES - The 29th Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival will be held Friday and Saturday July 18-19 in Prather Coliseum on the Northwestern State University campus in Natchitoches.
The Festival will be held from noon until 11 p.m. on Friday, July 18 and from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Saturday, July 19. Tickets are $13 for a weekend pass purchased in advance, $8 for an all-day pass, $5 for the evening only and $ 3 for children 7-12. Children six and under admitted free.
The 2008 Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival is supported by grants from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Louisiana Office of Tourism, the Natchitoches Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council & Louisiana Division of the Arts and Northwestern State University.
This year’s theme for the Festival is “Ties to the Isles: British and Irish Traditions in Louisiana.”
For the fifth year, the Folk Festival will host the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship on Saturday, July 19, from. 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Prather Coliseum’s Main Stage. Fiddlers from around the state will compete for cash prizes and ribbons in two categories – Trophy Division and Championship Division. Fiddlers can enter in either division, but not both. The Trophy Division is not competitive for the state championship and is open for the following age groups: 12 and under, 13-18, and 60 and above.
The top two fiddlers from each group in the Championship Division – ages 0-21, 22-59, and 60 and above -- will compete for cash prizes and the opportunity to be recognized as the state’s best fiddler. The winner will perform that evening at 6 p.m. on the Festival’s main stage in Prather Coliseum.
For music lovers, this year’s festival will include Cajun, rhythm & blues, ballads, bluegrass, gospel and Zydeco. In addition, festival visitors will enjoy Irish music, English ballads, Scottish music, bagpipes, Irish dancing and others in keeping with this year’s theme.
Friday night’s headliners are Smithfield Fair and Don Fontenot and Les Amis de la Louisiane.
On Saturday night, the headliners will include Danny O’Flaherty, Chris Miller & Bayou Roots, and the Rivers Revue.
Also scheduled to perform during the Festival on Friday are Becky Birdwell & Roadhouse, Shift, David Sylvester, Jr., Steve Wells, the Back Porch Band, Scotty Pousson & Pointe Aux Loups Playboys and Beaux Fisher. Saturday performers include Red River Pipes & Drums, Muggivan School of Irish Dance, Knight Train, Mauva Belle and Hot Water, The Conlys, Curry Perkins, Louisiana Purchase, the Detention Center Choir, Kim Brasso and Louisiana Boogie, Farouche, and Goldman Thibodeaux and the Lawtell Playboys.
Festival visitors are always interested in the crafts area where traditional craftspeople demonstrate their work and sell items. Many of these artists carry on traditions that are remnants of British and Irish culture. Jane McDaniel is originally from Ireland, and she will be demonstrating rag dolls like those made in Ireland in the late 1800s. Other crafts include baskets, woodworking, spinning and weaving, quilting, and much more.
Narrative sessions will focus on Scottish culture, Irish culture, genealogy, highland cattle, sheep, bees, weaving wool, Scots-Irish settlers, storytelling, north Louisiana food and music, English tea, and more. McDaniel, a U.S. National Irish Storytelling champion, will share some of her stories.
Author Ann Ball Ryals will hold a book signing, autographing copies of her book, “Of Love and War: The Civil War Letters and Medicinal Book of Augustus V. Ball.” Ryals transcribed the letters from her great grandparents to give a unique view of newlyweds caught up in the Civil War along with Ball’s account of medicine from that time period.
For more information on the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival, call (318) 357-4332 or go to www.nsula.edu/folklife.
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