Philadelphia Folk Festival Goes Digital After Sudden Losses

Philadelphia Folk Festival is staging its event for the 59th time and this year the fest will be presented in digital form, with programming honoring recently deceased festival founder Gene Shay and headliner John Prine, both of whom died of coronavirus.

The event is being put on with assistance from Mountain View Staging and will be held Aug. 13-16. The programming for the three-day event will include tributes to Shay and Prine, children’s programming, crafts, and campfire singalongs. Tickets are being sold at “sliding” scale starting at $25 per day. You can learn more at pfs.org. 

“We hold the honor of being the longest continuously run outdoor music festival in all of North America”, Executive Director Justin Nordell said in a statement. “And we weren’t about to disappoint our community, especially as countless music festivals and events worldwide are cancelling. So, the question became, how do we produce a festival so tied to gathering together in a time where we’re left with no choice but to be apart?”  

Philadelphia Folk Festival is put on by the Philadelphia Folksong Society, which was founded in 1957.

Last year’s Philadelphia Folk Festival featured Jeffrey Foucault, Caitlin Canty and Oshima Brothers.