National Folk Festival On Hiatus

The National Folk Festival in Nashville is taking a break this year.

Organizer the National Council for the Traditional Artists pulled no punches in its press release, stating the 2011 edition suffered “funding shortfalls.” NCTA anticipated a three-year festival run after moving to Nashville last year.

However, “The drag of the recession and very poor weather over the festival weekend proved to be too much to overcome in the short term,” the organizer said. The drag of the recession, plus the initial distraction and lingering burdens of the 2009 floods, and very poor weather over the festival weekend proved too much to overcome in the short term. Our primary local Nashville festival partner, the non-profit Nashville Folk and Roots, has subsequently been unable to fulfill the contractual commitments.”

Nashville beat out 40 cities to host the annual festival, according to the Tennessean. Last year’s fest was Sept. 2-4 in Bicentennial Capitol Mall State Park.

Meanwhile, NCTA is taking applications for a 2014-16 host city and has suggested folk enthusiasts to visit other NCTA sponsored events, like the American Folk Festival, Aug. 24-26 in Bangor, Maine, and Richmond Folk Festival, Oct. 12-14 in Virginia.