Dear Downtown Salisbury Business and Property Owners:
Have you heard? The National Folk Festival is coming to Salisbury Friday, September 7 – Sunday September 9! The National Folk Festival is the oldest, longest running multicultural celebration in the nation and it’s FREE!
Featuring over 350 of the nation’s finest traditional performers and crafts people, 7 stages of continuous music and dance, craft exhibits and demonstrations, a festival marketplace, family activities, and delicious regional and ethnic foods. The Festival embraces the heritage and traditions of ALL AMERICANS, from those whose families have been here for millennia to those recently arrived on our shores.
Seventy Five Thousand to One Hundred Thousand people (yes, you read that right) are expected to attend the Festival in Salisbury in Year 1, with attendance increasing annually over the National’s 3-year stay. After the National Folk Festival moves to the next host city, we will continue to produce a high quality traditional arts festival that will develop and thrive long after the National Folk Festival moves on from Downtown Salisbury.
How does being a host city benefit our community? Each year, we anticipate between $15-30 MILLION in direct spending by attendees over the Festival weekend and many millions more in associated spending. That means dollars in our hotels, restaurants, bars, shops, and service industries. In addition to generating economic growth, the Festival also gives Salisbury businesses the chance to shine in the national spotlight with local and national media highlighting the event each year. In other words, we get to show off why we are the best on the shore and why visitors, old and new, should keep coming back to Salisbury.
This isn’t your traditional folk. Blues, Klezmer, gospel, bluegrass, cowboy, rockabilly, New Orleans jazz, polka, honky-tonk, hip hop, western swing, old-time, R&B, mariachi, tamburitza, go-go, Tex-Mex, and zydeco, as well as performing traditions from Native American, Cajun, Celtic, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, Asian, Appalachian, Latin American, African and Pacific Islander cultures, will be a part of the programming mix.
The National Folk Festival in Salisbury is produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) in partnership with the City of Salisbury and local community organizations. The National Folk Festival will be presented in Downtown Salisbury for three consecutive years – 2018, 2019 and 2020, with the final year in Salisbury marking the event’s 80th anniversary. After that, we will put on a similarly-scaled folk festival Downtown in perpetuity. This is huge for us as a community! Get excited and get ready!
We will be hosting an informational session for Downtown businesses on Thursday, February 15th in Council Chambers at 5:00 PM.
For general information about the Festival and announcements, follow our social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram at @NFFMaryland or visit www.NationalFolkFestival.com.
Get ready, Salisbury. It’s happening!
For more information please contact our Local Festival Manager Caroline O’Hare at cohare@salisbury.md or The Downtown Visitor Center at 410-677-1916
