A once-a-year chance to experience authentic folk music returned Sunday along the banks of the Fox River in Geneva.
The 43rd-annual Fox Valley Folk Music & Storytelling Festival is a time-tested two-day event at Island Park that features performers with diverse backgrounds representing a spectrum of “roots music,” including bluegrass, Cajun and Delta blues.
“These are national performers who tour year-round,” said Juel Ulven, festival director and founder of the Fox Valley Folklore Society.
Dance and storytelling performances fill out the festival’s eight stages. There are interactive music workshops for aspiring artists as well. Performances and workshops continue through Monday.
Thirty featured artists and area organization performances across eight stages will produce 100 hours of scheduled music over the two days, Ulven said.
“It’s like picking from a menu and designing your own festival,” he said.
This year’s performers include Gina Forsyth known for her soulful music on fiddle and guitar, songwriters and musicians Curtis & Loretta, Chicago-based singer-songwriter Michael Smith and blues singer and guitarist Del Ray.
Red Tail Ring is the Michigan duo of Laurel Premo and Michael Beauchamp. Their music uses a combination of traditional and old-time revivalists to create original compositions.
“It’s a joy to make someone else’s day better,” Premo said of performing.
They have been performing together for 10 years. “The nice thing about this festival is that the audience is physically close, which has a positive effect on the performers,” Beauchamp said.
“It feels cozy compared to a lot of festivals,” he said.
Geneva’s Island Park has been home to the Fox Valley Folk Music and Storytelling Festival since 1979.
Linda Styler was at one of the performing tents where Red Tail Ring performed for an hour.
“The harmonies are just incredible,” Styler said of the music.
“I discovered this festival 20 years ago with a walk on the island one Sunday morning,” the Montgomery resident said.
Ulven originally volunteered to schedule the entertainment lineup for a festival held in Aurora in 1975.
The Fox Valley Folk Festival and Storytelling Festival debuted not long after in 1977 on the Water Street Mall in downtown Aurora, he said.
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The Fox Valley Folklore Society, which has met every Wednesday since its inception in the mid-1970s, organizes the festival and hosts some 100 other events throughout the year, including barn dances at Fermilab.
“The core base of folk music is traditional,” Ulven said.
The songs and lyrics were passed on orally and not recorded, he said.
“The British ballads survived hundreds of years among people who could not read or write,” Ulven said.
“Pop music is developed and marketed to the general public. These are songs and lyrics that were dug out,” Ulven said.
Rey performs 150 to 200 shows throughout the year, she said.
“I was hanging around Folk Arts Rare Records which was owned by a record collector named Lou Curtiss, who was also the director of the San Diego Folk Festival. He invited me to perform there,” she said.
Rey was a young teen at the time.
“It was very similar to the Fox Valley Folk Festival where there are stages with various forms of music and storytelling, Rey said of her first performance.
Linda Girardi is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.