The Seattle Folklore Society is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an all-day free festival this Saturday at the Phinney Neighborhood Association, 6532 Phinney Ave. N. All events at “50 Years of Folk” are free with no tickets needed; admittance is subject to room capacity on a first-come basis.
Lasting 11 hours in 11 different rooms in both the PNA’s Blue Building and Brick Building, the festival will celebrate fiddling, ukulele strumming, Contra dancing, clogging, square dancing, storytelling, and music from a wide range of influences, plus puppet-making with Seattle ReCreative.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. are participatory activities and listening; dinner break is from 5-7 p.m. (bring your own or support a nearby restaurant); then from 7-10 p.m. is the showcase concert featuring Scandinavian music by Skolkis, historic dance tunes and fiddling by Phil and Vivian Williams, old-time music, harmony singing, and flatfoot dancing from Squirrel Butter, and stories, songs and tunes from virtuoso auto-harp player Bryan Bowers.
Click here for the full schedule, including:
- “Fiddling From Scratch” for kids & adults (loaner fiddles available)
- Carter Family Songs – Sharman Smith, Cathy Britell, Laura Gregg, Robert Giidley
- Mini-Concert – Phil & Vivian Williams: Pioneer Dance Music of the Far West
- Contra-dance musician workshop – Matching tunes to dances: Countercurrent
- Appalachian Clogging workshop (Eclectic Cloggers)
- Square Dance Caller workshop (dancers welcome)
