The University of Chicago Folk Festival is a long-time event--I think it's been held for almost…read moreseven decades, with the exception of the first couple years of the pandemic. It's a combination of folk arts, workshops held by performers or others, concerts, and so on. There are dances held during the workshop days often with music from the concert performers. You can join a sea shanty sing, or learn a new way of playing your instrument, how to become a storyteller, and so on. The workshops during the day are free but the concerts at Mandel Hall have a charge.
The schedule is a mess. There's no break between most events, which causes so many problems I just cannot understand their insistence on maintaining this mode of scheduling. A workshop is scheduled 12:30-1:30 and another from 1:30-2:30 in the same room. How is this logistically sound? You have to get the prior presenter out, which could take several minutes depending upon what gear they have to pack up. Folks leaving & entering simultaneously for two workshops. I've been to workshops that were 10+ minutes off schedule for this reason and sat through programs I thought were within 20 minutes of finishing so as not to miss the one following, only to find out it was actually closer to 40 minutes from ending (annoying since I wasn't interested in the topic and would have attended another workshop during that hour if I'd known they were so far behind). It doesn't help that sometimes the volunteers overseeing a workshop don't give a time call or when asked how much time remains they aren't assertive in saying time's up/one minute left/etc. Changing the schedule to add breaks would add less than an hour to the schedule, and/or they could change the start and end time for the day.
A quilting workshop by the Lakeshore Quilting Guild is one I was excited to attend. This was the reason I attended this year; unfortunately, the workshop was quite a dud. It started 15 or so minutes late due to the scheduling issues mentioned above. There was little instruction. I've never quilted before and once set up they just sat at the front--it took someone asking when we were starting for them to hand that person a paper with patterns, tell them to pick out squares, and provide information on what we were doing there. But what do we do with the squares once we have them? It wasn't very well planned and that was disappointing because I had been ready to join the Lakeshore Quilting Guild to learn this craft and maybe make something small. Based on this experience it seems like they're only really looking for experienced quilters, not newbies. It would have been better if they'd welcomed us and told us what we were doing, how to use the patterns, how they wanted us to arrange them and then bring them up for sewing; if there'd been Guild members helping attendees from the start rather than standing at the front waiting for people to come to them at first. When they got overwhelmed by people lining up to get help sewing they realized they should maybe do something besides play with their phones or stand around. I know, I should cut them some slack, since I'm not sure they've ever participated in the festival before.
ETA: Camille saved the quilting day! She set up a second sewing machine and helped me sew my square together. She was very welcoming, asking me my name; if I did fiber or other domestic arts; and invited me to their meetings (they meet twice per month, once via zoom and once in person).
I also went to the end of the Piedmont Blues workshop, which was well attended. Most folks watched but I did see a few with guitars in the audience. Immediately after in the same room was the Huateco fiddle workshop, providing some instruction on a style of music from a region in Mexico, and that was pretty cool. That's the workshop I had actually wanted to listen to in there and the performer was really proficient.
One of my favorite aspects are the jam sessions that just pop up. I stumbled onto two whilst I was there on different floors. I only got a chance to listen to one, really, but the players were fantastic! I could have listened to them for an hour or more.
The festival is ADA-compliant... ish. Noyes Hall has entrance ramps on the west (Woodlawn) and east (Kimbark) sides of the building, but the UCFF site doesn't say anything; I combed the website and found nothing saying there were special entrances for folks can't use the stairs. The students who are working at the desk in the building, completely unrelated to this specific event, also apparently don't know where the stair-free entrances are because when I asked she had to call someone to find out. That front entrance also has three black stairs once you enter the doors which are hard to see especially when you're leaving, so be careful there.
Overall, it's an enjoyable event with some room for improvement even decades in. The concerts held on Friday and Saturday are great.
