Hours
Festival hours: Friday, August 10, 2001 6:00 - 10:30 p.m.
Saturday, August 11, 2001 noon to 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, August 12, 2001 noon to 6:00 p.m.

Free Admission
The National Folk Festival is presented free of charge to the Public.

Accessibility
The Festival is fully accessible and will provide sign language and audio description for selected performances.

Travel information
Finding us is easy. Take any major highway to US 127. From the North, exit at Grand River Avenue. From the South, exit at Trowbridge Road. Please note, Interstate 496 will be under construction during the Festival. Signs will identify festival parking locations. Free parking, with free shuttle service to the downtown festival site, will be available at Hagadorn and South Service Road on the south side of the Michigan State University Campus (the "Green Route"), at the Abbott Center, 1400-1500 Abbott Road (the "Red Route"), and at East Lansing Highschool, 509 Burcham Drive (the "Red Route".)

Bike to the Festival
Volunteers from the League of Michigan Bicyclists and Tri-County Bicycle Association will park and guard bicycles for FREE in a special Bike Valet Parking Area located on Linden Street at Abbott Road adjacent to City Hall in the heart of the Festival area.


Volunteers from the League of Michigan Bicyclists and Tri-County Bicycle Association will park and guard bicycles for FREE in a special Bike Valet Parking Area located on Linden Street at Abbott Road adjacent to City Hall in the heart of the Festival area.

Festival Weather Forecast
Sky Team 10 Weatherlab - WILX-TV    wilx.com

Directions to East Lansing and NFF
http://www.hfs.msu.edu/kellogg/areamap.html
http://fix496.com

National Folk Festival Program Information
The largest stage will be in Valley Court Park (behind Beaners).
- The festival will run from Valley Court Park all the way up to the Marriott Hotel on the corner of Albert and M.A.C. Avenues.
- The Albert Avenue Dance Pavilion will feature 90-minute sets of a variety of dance music
including: polka, Cajun, blues, Caribbean, Tex-Mex and contra dancing. It will be located in the Albert Avenue Lot behind Tower Records.
- There are approximately 25 different performers/music groups who will rotate on multiple stages throughout the festival each day offering continuous performances.
-There will be more than 25 food vendors featuring traditional, ethnic and regional foods.
- The festival will feature traditional crafts with demonstrations and sales.
- The "children's area" in the Valley Court Park will provide kids with hands-on activities that are related to cultural traditions.

The National Folk Festival performers are the real thing. You will see top-notch performers, superb musicians and skilled entertainers. Twenty diverse musical acts have been confirmed:

For those who enjoyed the NFF 2000 Crossroads Stage, focusing on traditions in clothing and body adornment, look for more Talkers and Tellers programming throughout this year's festival. Artists in arts and ethnic food traditions will provide audiences with insightful experiences from their own lives. The Folk Arts Marketplace, Taste of Traditions Food Court, Children's Folk Activities Area and Traditional Games Tent complete the sights, sounds, flavors and fun of this rich cultural celebration.

East lansing Recreation and Arts will again sponsor crafts workshops this year for those looking for a more "hands-on" experience. And dance workshops, offered on three separate evenings prior to the festival, give people the chance to perfect some dance steps they can use under the dance tents each night at NFF.

Transportation to and from the site will be by shuttle bus from off-site parking.
Trolley service will move visitors around on-site. For those with disabilities, assistance will be provided in moving around the crowded festival site.
Audio Description and sign language will be provided at each stage.

Ethnic & Traditional foods
This year’s National Folk Festival will showcase the foods of various ethnic, religious, and regional groups in the Taste of Traditions Food Court.
-African-American Ribs
-Armenian and Russian Cuisine
-Dutch-American Sausage
-Greek and Thai Food
-Indian *NEW*
-Mexican-American Gorditas
-Middle Eastern Specialties

Family Fun & Activities
The National Folk Festival is a festival for kids and families to enjoy and to learn together.
-Dance performances
-music
-Crafts
-Ethnic foods
-Exhibitions
-Hands-on Activities
-Storytelling
-workshops

Traditional Arts & Crafts
Many traditional artists will be demonstrating and selling their crafts in this year’s Folk Arts Market Place.
-African-American Quilts
-Cedar Fan Carving
-Chinese Jade Carving
-Finnish-American Rag Rugs
-Native-American Baskets

Great news for Folk Fest followers: Great Lakes Folk Festival for 2002

Links
Capital area center for independent living
Cityfolk Festival
Creole Gallery
Kalamazoo Institute of Arts
Lansing Convention and Visitors Bureau
Lowell Folk Festival
Michigan Festival Events Association.
Ten Pound Fiddle Coffeehouse
Travel Michigan



Festival Producers

National Council for the Traditional Arts
The NCTA has over a half-century of experience in producing successful festivals within diverse communities. Every three years the NCTA joins forces with a new set of local organizations to form the partnerships needed to make the National Folk Festival successful in a new location. The NCTA is the organizing partner that coordinates programming on many aspects of the overall production. It is their expertise in the traditional arts and the production of large outdoor public events that guarantees success from the beginning. The NCTA, a nonprofit organization located in the Washington, D.C. area, is dedicated to the presentation and documentation of traditional, folk, ethnic and tribal arts.

City of East Lansing
The City of East Lansing has a long-standing commitment to the cultural life of the community and has developed the aesthetic technical and promotions expertise within its staff to successfully create and manage large-scale outdoor events. The City also produces annual children's concerts, a major art festival and a public art program.

Michigan State University
The Michigan State University Museum is a land-grant university museum of natural and cultural history. Through its Michigan Traditional Arts Program it has had twenty-five years of successful experience developing and implementing programming that documents the traditional arts and cultural heritage of the state of Michigan.