Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival This Weekend

Natchitoches is the place to be this weekend for the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival and we've got the scoop!

NATCHITOCHES – The 33rd Annual Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival will be held July 20-21 in Prather Coliseum on the Northwestern State University campus. The Festival will be on Friday, July 20 from 4:30 p.m. until 11:15 p.m. and Saturday, July 21 from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m.

Tickets are $11 for a two-day pass, available in advance only, $8 for all events on Saturday or $5 for a one-time evening pass to all events after 5 p.m.

The Festival Theme is “Celebrating Louisiana’s Folk Music.” Along with music, food, crafts, narrative sessions and demonstrations will be featured.

The Annual Louisiana State Fiddle Championship will also be part of the Festival. The Fiddle Championship will be held July 21 at 1 p.m. in Magale Recital Hall. There will be a non-championship class for those 12 and under, 13-18 and 60 above and a championship class for those 21 and under, 22-59 and age 60 and above. Registration is at noon in the second floor foyer outside Magale Recital Hall.

At 11:30 a.m., fiddler Ron Yule and the Medicare String Band will present a program, “A History of Louisiana Fiddling: Genres and Styles.”

Among the featured musical groups will be Richard Smith and Julie Adams, Jesus Rhythm, Briggs Brown and the Bayou Cajuns, Yvette Landry, Cajun on Demand, Max and Marcy, The LaCour Trio, Goldman Thibodeaux and the Lawtell Playboys, Reverend Charley’s Patent Medicine Show, Ray Abshire, the Caddo Creek Band, Feufollet, Kenny Bill Stinson and the Ark-La Mystics, Henry Gray and the Cats, the Louisiana Purchase Bluegrass Band, Hardrick Rivers and the Rivers Revue Band and Reasonable Facsimile. The Louisiana State Fiddle champion will also perform.

Narrative sessions will feature many of the Festival’s musical acts, who will combine interviews with informal performances. The sessions will feature Reasonable Facsimile, Feufollet, Henry Gray and the Cats, the Caddo Creek Band, the Louisiana Purchase Bluegrass Band, Goldman Thibodeaux and the Lawtell Playboys, Ray Abshire, Kenny Bill Stinson and the Ark-La Mystics and Ron Yule, who will discuss 20th century fiddle music styles in Louisiana.

Three dozen craftspeople have been invited to display their traditional work on Saturday and discuss their work with those attending the Festival. Craftspeople are expected to display beadwork, baskets, instruments, Pysanky eggs, bull whips, iron work, quilts and bonnet, whittling and needlework, wood carving, toys, dolls, paintings, sculpture, walking sticks and more.

Support for the Festival is provided by grants from the Department of Culture, Recreation, & Tourism: Louisiana Division of the Arts --Shreveport Regional Arts Council, the Natchitoches Area Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the Cane River National Heritage Area, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For more information, call (318) 357-4332 or go to louisianafolklife.nsula.edu.