Dar Williams will headline the scaled-down 2009 Boston Folk Music Festival at UMass Boston on Sept. 12-13. Among other performers this year are Jill Sobule, Jake Amerding, Michael Tarbox, and Cape Cod band Tripping Lily. But no one on the bill has the wide draw of past headliners like Bruce Cockburn or Emmylou Harris. And all the performances will be indoors.
"We really didn't think there was going to be a Boston folk fest this year," fest director and WUMB-FM General Manager Pat Monteith told the audience for Jay Moberg's morning show. In 11 years, the fest has never broken even, she said, and organizers thought, "with the economy, we just can't do this." But hundreds of folk fans thought otherwise, which convinced them to try the slimmed-down event, Monteith said.
Performances will be held in three venues at UMass: Lipke Auditorium in the Science Building; Snowden Auditorium, Wheatley Building; Ryan Lounge, McCormack Building. The size of the venues means that the festival can only sell one-third as many tickets as its previous lowest attendance, Monteith said, so you'd better get your tickets early. But the process is a little confusing. All the details are after the jump. (Pictured: Dar Williams.)
Tickets are on sale to WUMB members only today until 2 p.m. at 617-287-6911; members also get a $5 discount. That might make it worthwhile for you to call up, join the station and buy tickets at the same time, which is encouraged. After 2 p.m. anyone call call and buy tickets or use the links at the ticketing page.
Tickets for Saturday's songwriting contest at Lipke are $20. But for Sunday's performances, there are three separate ticket classes (sigh).
Patron tickets are reserved seats at one of the three stages for $40-$50; even if you choose one of the other two venues, your patron ticket will also get you into Williams' closing performance at the Lipke Stage. Set location tickets for $25-$30 get you unassigned seats "in a reserved area" at one of the three venues, and if your set location isn't Lipke, you can pay an extra $10 and see Williams too. Finally there are $20 general admission tickets which get you into any of the three venues but on a space-available basis, and with these too, you can pay an extra $10 and see Williams, if there's room.
I'm exhausted just writing about it. I could swear someone on the radio said something about an extremely limited number of $100 all-access tickets, but there's no evidence of that at the web site that I can find. WUMB informs me that, as mentioned on the radio, there is a limited number of $100 "Super Patron" all-access tickets available, and that info will be posted on the web site soon.
Here's Sunday's performer list by stage:
Performing at the Lipke Stage: Dar Williams, Jill Sobule, Boston T Party (Alastair Moock, Merrie Amsterburg, Tim Gearan, Rose Polenzani), Jeff Black, Kerri Powers, winner of Songwriting contest.
Performing at the Snowden Stage: Jake Armerding, Alastair Moock, Joe Crookston, Tim Gearan, Jeremy Lyons, Rose Polenzani, Abi Tapia, Michael Tarbox.
Performing at the Coffeehouse (Ryan) Stage: Jake Armerding, Geoff Bartley, Lou & Peter Berryman, Aoife Clancy, Joe Crookston, Les Sampou, Don White, Tripping Lily.
Comments