Greensboro's African American Community Newspaper since 1967
The Roots will headline this year’s NC Folk Festival, which runs Sept. 18-20 in Greensboro.
The words “folk festival” may conjure an image of banjos and dulcimers but don’t be misled. This festival also embraces the group founded in 1987 by Tariq “Black Thought” Trotter and Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, hip-hoppers who blend jazz, funk and soul. They’ll appear on Saturday evening, Sept. 19.
“In reality folk music is a really large spectrum of music from all over,” said festival artistic director Savannah Thorne, who added that the nonprofit’s staff works hard to make it inclusive.
“We want you to see either yourself or your neighbor somewhere on stage.”
The event sprawls over several blocks of downtown Greensboro, and staff says there will be 25 genres of music played by more than 50 artists on five main and two auxiliary stages, 40-plus food trucks, and nearly five dozen craft artisans – all with no admission charge.
“You can kind of start on one end of the footprint, listen to a good set, and then as you mosey your way down you will stumble upon everything that there is to offer,” said Thorne.
More than half of this year’s stars have North Carolina ties. They include NC A&T’s Cold Steel Drumline; Abigail Dowd, a blues and neo-soul singer-songwriter from the Sandhills; and Elora Dash of Chapel Hill, an R&B multi-instrumentalist and vocalist.
The Roots aren’t this year’s only big names. Molly Tuttle, who won the Grammy for Best Bluegrass Album back to back in 2023 and 2024, is the highlight performer on Sunday evening. Friday features St. Paul and the Broken Bones, a soul band from Alabama who have shared stages with the likes of Lizzo and the Rolling Stones.
Not too shabby for a festival that’s free to attend – which is of course not free to present.
“It costs $1.5 million for us to produce which we fundraise every year through corporate sponsorships and all kinds of individual donors and grant funding,” Thorne explained.
The generosity of the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau secured this year’s headliners. Folks do come to the festival from beyond the Triad and the state.
“We know that we have a really large contingency from the Raleigh-Durham area, from the Charlotte area, from the Richmond area. We saw a pretty large uptick in folks from Maryland and Atlanta last year.”
And unpaid labor – volunteers – are crucial to the effort. The festival still needs helping hands; visit https://www.ncfolkfestival.com/ to get involved.
Thorne said they need people for the job she called her favorite: checking wristbands in the VIP tent.
“You get to go to the festival, sit in a very comfy chair under the guaranteed shade which is nice. You get to listen to music all day, and then you just check wristbands to make sure that folks have the appropriate wrist band to go into the different VIP areas. And those shifts are normally two to three hours, and then you just get to go enjoy the rest of the footprint.
“It’s a good time. And it’s a great way to help out the community but also to see everybody because when you’re sitting there you end up saying hello to all of your neighbors,” Thorne said.
“Honestly the part I love most about our festival is that it feels like the greatest family reunion in North Carolina.”
