Twenty-five bands. Five venues. One night. Brace yourself for the folk invasion of Station North: the Baltimore Folk Fest 2014. On Friday, October 17 the Folk Fest will return for its third consecutive year, bringing together local, regional and national folk and folk-inspired artists, all within a two-block radius. Get ready to let loose, clap your hands, tap your feet, do a little jig and have a folking great time, because the Baltimore Folk Fest is coming in hot.

You have Alex Champagne to thank for that. When he is not running Scenic Route Records or writing and performing music, he is organizing the Baltimore Folk Fest. The festival came about as a product of his passion for folk music and the community that surrounds it. “[The Folk Fest] has been like my baby,” Alex says. And like any good parent, he has been loving and nurturing his baby, helping it to grow into the hootenanny happening later this month.

The Birth of a Festival

Alex says that growing up he had a lot of friends who were into the punk and hardcore scene. He enjoyed the high energy and close knit community that came along with it. But before long he found himself gravitating towards folk music. Both punk and folk  have a “grass roots” feel, with a “DIY aspect,” Alex explains, and folk “draws from that [punk] attitude.” Alex was “drawn to acoustic and folk instruments,” in addition to “made-up percussion” (pots, pans, washboards and the like), things you don’t see in the punk scene. “It was a great feeling,” Alex says, when he would go to folk shows and afterwards they would all go to someone’s house, “pull out the instruments, and jam.”

Living in Baltimore, Alex saw lots of great events and festivals as well as big music communities, but folk music was lacking representation. He found himself helping with other festivals in the area, including NoVo Fest and the Maryland Craft Beer Festival, and after seeing how they were organized and executed, he thought to himself, “I could do this.”

In 2012 Alex did it. He says the Folk Fest “started small,” with 16 bands performing at the Windup Space and Joe Squared as well as a tent outside of Penn Station. “It turned out well,” and got a lot of positive feedback, Alex says. The following year the Folk Fest expanded, adding Charm City Art Space, The Crown and Liam Flynn’s Ale House to the list of venues. In addition to more great bands, it also featured the Folk Yeah Flannel Off. With another successful year under its belt, nothing could stop the Folk Fest from coming back with a vengeance in 2014.

The Return of the Folk Fest

The 3rd annual Baltimore Folk Fest is upon us. It’s going down at The Windup Space, Hour Haus, Joe Squared, The Crown and Liam Flynn’s Ale House on the evening of Friday, October 17. For the price of $20, you get access to all five venues. One of the notable changes in the festival from past years is the reach of the bands, with more acts coming from out of town (such as Tiny Rhymes from Buffalo, NY, Laney Jones from Boston, MA, and Human Behavior from Tucson, AZ).

Other acts that will be in attendance are The Manly Deeds, Letitia VanSant & the Bonafides, Among Wolves, Kindlewood, Luray, The Herd of Main Street, Josephine Olivia, Dear Creek from NYC, Alison Self & the Lonesome Low from Richmond and the End of America from Philadelphia. These are just a few of the performances to look forward to since surely they will all be great – as Alex puts it “I wouldn’t invite them to play the festival if I didn’t want to see them personally.” Even Alex himself “got talked into playing this year,” and the band he put together, Tiny Timbers, will be closing out the night at the Windup Space.

If one night of folk isn’t enough for you, feel free to swing by the YNOT Lot, a lot next to the Windup Space on Saturday, October 18 around 5 pm for the “after-after party,” with more music from Tiny Rhymes and The End of America. The invite says to “bring a chair, bring a blanket, bring a picnic!” Oh yeah, and it’s FREE. And speaking of free things, if you get pre-sale tickets for the festival you get a FREE 16-song digital compilation of some of the bands playing the Folk Fest. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal.

“Baltimore Folk Fest is all about friends coming together and sharing their passion and love for folk-inspired tunes in a city that embraces music in all its forms,” Alex says. That is what he likes about running the festival – being able to connect artists with each other and bringing an audience to watch them. There is “great folk and folk inspired music that doesn’t always get noticed,” Alex says, and “a big event helps grab people’s attention.” He hopes that is it grows the Folk Fest will “invigorate Baltimore and the area in general.” Alex is doing more than his part to support the growing Baltimore folk community, and he says it has “helped me meet a lot of great people and artists,” along the way.

Looking to the future, Alex says it would “be cool for it to become a Baltimore staple,” and that he plans to “keep it growing.” He has toyed with the idea of making it multiple days, adding more venues or finding one large venue, and maybe one day making it a Baltimore version of SXSW since the city is a central location on the East Coast.

Baltimore: a Folk-Friendly City

If you think folk music has nothing to do with Baltimore, you are mistaken. From the 1930s to the 1960s, waves of migrants from the South and the Appalachian Mountains came to Baltimore in search of work, bringing with them their way of life which, including their folksy music and instruments. Here is an article from the City Paper that goes into more detail about this Northern exodus and its effect on the city. Although that was some time ago, Alex explains that there are “new generations of folk music” and it is “still connecting with our history.”

Folk music is the music of the people – “everyman’s music,” as Alex puts it. It is not pretentious or glamorous, but sincere and honest. Alex has always viewed Baltimore as “a blue-collar city,” the sort of environment that is ideal for folk music. It’s the kind of music that “hardworking people can appreciate,” Alex says; it tells stories and talks about history. It is a part of our history, it is about “heritage and tradition,” Alex says, “and how we connect to people.” Folk music draws from cultures all over the world (the banjo has roots in West Africa) and blurs it together, producing a whole new thing that that is of the people and for the people. So if you haven’t taken the time to connect to your history and take part in the age-old tradition that is folk music, you better strap on your dancing shoes and come down to the Baltimore Folk Fest and see what it’s all about.

Pre-sale tickets are sold here, which include a FREE 16-song digital download.

Here is the Facebook event for the Baltimore Folk Fest where you can get more details on the event.

And here you can find more info on the event on the 18th, YNOT FOLK FOR FREE.