Yesterday, The 77th National Folk Festival ended its three year run in Greensboro. Part of the reason the festival stays in one city for three years is to give a city the opportunity to build the infrastructure necessary to sustain a folk festival of its own. As an example, yesterday, at LeBauer Stage, a student in the sound engineering program at GTCC was working alongside a career sound engineer who was brought in by the National Folk Festival organization. Local people are learning the technical aspects and logistics for working at a festival from the experts. 

If you were not able to attend the festival, you can find videos and photos on YouTube and on the musicians’ sites. Also, the News & Record held live interviews with twelve of the festival artists/groups and these interviews are archived online, including on the News & Record’s Facebook page. The interviews were free and open to the public and as intimate as a fireside chat. The News & Record does so much for the local community. They were an invaluable add on to the festival.

Today’s photo, with the lone child in the foreground, the city’s skyline in the background, and festival-goers scurrying around the food trucks, reminds us of just how special Greensboro is and how community events like music festivals bring us together. For three days, downtown Greensboro was as diverse as the United Nations, and to our knowledge, we were all on our best behavior. While the National Folk Festival is moving on to Salisbury, MD, they have left Greensboro well prepared to host the North Carolina Folk Festival in 2018.