Sunday, October 31, 2010

2011 Folk Festival Headliners Announced!

Sunday, October 31, 2010


One of my most favorite times of the year happens at the end of every January: the Ann Arbor Folk Festival put on by The Ark. I start to get super excited about it generally in late October when the line-up starts to be announced starting with the main headliners and slowly filling out the bills with smaller more regional acts. The first night of the festival is generally full of artists who are expanding the traditional folk genre. Past Friday night acts have been Ben Folds, Jackie Greene, Jeff Tweedy, Rufus Wainwright, and Jay Ferrar & Ben Gibbard. While the Saturday night headliners are usually the classic folk and roots music pioneers. Pete Seeger, Kris Kristofferson, Richie Havens, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, and John Prine have all been recent Saturday night guests. You can read all about the history of the folk festival and see previous line-ups here.

The Ark began announcing the headliners last week, and I'm already getting anxious for January to be here. Headlining on Friday night is one of the best bands to see live, The Avett Brothers. Words cannot express how excited I am to be able to catch them live again. Also playing Friday will be Citizen Cope (I find it really odd that he's playing a folk festival, but maybe he's got some folkie gems hidden up his sleeve that I don't know about...) and local favorite Vienna Teng. Saturday night folk legend Judy Collins will play, along with Mavis Staples (!!!), and The Swell Season as the main headliner. I find it surprising that the main Saturday headlining spot didn't go to Mavis or Judy, but nevertheless I'm super excited to catch all three acts. There's also usually a "breakout" star of the festival, and I'm excited to see who that will be this year.

The countdown to January 28th, 2011 is on!

Stumble Upon Toolbar

0 comments:

 
candy for your ears. Design by Pocket