A Reason to Rumba

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Let’s get ready to rumba.

One step into the Richmond Folk Festival, and your feet want to start moving to the music.

The 2nd annual three-day, free music festival — one of Virginia’s largest events — took place last weekend around Tredegar Iron Works and Brown’s Island, along the banks of the James River. The event originally came to town from 2005 through 2007 as the National Folk Festival, the nation’s longest-running and most diverse festival of traditional arts. Put on by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), one of the traveling event’s goals is to help communities start their own local festivals, and with Richmond they certainly succeeded.

Over 185,000 people attended last year when Richmond held the festival on its own for the first time. And while Saturday’s gloomy weather led to a slightly smaller crowd than normal, the weekend-long event entertained thousands, from Richmond and beyond.

From Western cowboy yodeling to Jamaican reggae to traditional Korean dance, the Richmond Folk Festival caters to all kinds of musical tastes. I can think of very few events that so successfully bring the Richmond community together for a singular cause with such enthusiasm.

Five different stages are featured each year, including a designated family area, and with over 30 artists performing throughout the weekend, picking and choosing your festival experience can become an art in-and-of itself. After wandering my way from stage to stage, I was able to pinpoint my top three favorite performances from the weekend:

Debashish Bhattacharya, Indian slide guitarist, Kolkata, India
This Grammy-nominated artist plays a 22-string guitar (among many other guitars) he made himself, and is one of India’s leading pioneers of slide guitar music. His brother and master tabla player, Subhasis Bhattacharya, accompanied him, and together they jam music full of traditional yet experimental Indian flair with a sound reminiscent of the sitar. It’s hypnotic, and I went back on both Saturday and Sunday.

Workshop with Slide Guitar Masters
Where else can you see Grammy-winning dobro player Jerry Douglas, Grammy-nominated Debashish Bhattacharya, Sacred Steel player Aubrey Ghent and acclaimed blues guitarist Corey Harris all improv together on the same stage?

Samba Mapangala & Orchestre Virunga, East African rumba and soukous
Fill the stage with a fusion of Congonese rumba, East African sounds and synchronized dancers, and you have the makings of an energized dance party. The highlight of this band — aside from their catchy rhythms — came when a young girl from the audience jumped onstage and followed along with the troupe’s dancers, only to be joined by an ecstatic toddler and three other teenage boys.

If you’ve not yet attended the Richmond Folk Festival, I highly recommend scheduling your 2010 calendar for the event.

Photos courtesy of Richmond Folk Festival.