The North Carolina Folk Festival announced another record-breaking year.

The estimate is that 156,000 people attended the NC Folk Festival in 2019.

For three years Greensboro hosted the American Folk Festival, which moves every three years. So, in 2018, the NC Folk Festival was created and for attendance to increase in the second year, means the NC Folk Festival is headed in the right direction.

The announcement notes that because the NC Folk Festival is free, there are no tickets to count and the attendance is based on estimates from the City of Greensboro, merchandise and beverage sales and, because it is 2019, drone photography.

More than 70 sponsors and 100 Friends of the Festival made the free three-day event in downtown Greensboro possible.

Hundreds of artists, which included musicians, dancers, storytellers and crafts people, participated in the festival. There were 106 separate performances and workshops over the three-day festival with more than 45 different artists performing at five outdoor stages and nine indoor venues.

New this year was the Folk Fest Music Spots program that featured artists performing inside downtown businesses.

Also new this year was the NC Folk A’Fare a culinary fundraising event held two days before the festival kicked off and The Lounge a special ticketed and catered area hosted in partnership with NAI Piedmont Triad.

Festival Director Amy Grossman said, “Each year we add features and make improvements to the event that reflect attendee and supporter feedback from prior years. We are thrilled by the continued attendance and support of the Festival from our community, and even with the high temperatures over the weekend, we met every expectation for presenting the Festival and the city of Greensboro as premier cultural destinations in the Southeast.”