The North Carolina Folk Festival announced on Monday, July 13 that the 2020 version of the festival from Friday, Sept. 11 through Sunday, Sept. 13 will be a virtual event.
The NC Folk Festival in its second year in 2019 attracted an estimated 156,000 people to downtown Greensboro to enjoy the musicians, dancers, storytellers and craftspeople. That will not be the case in 2020.
The 2020 virtual NC Folk Festival will be produced in partnership with 7 Cinematics, a video, music and streaming production company based in Greensboro.
The pre-recorded live performances will be streamed online the weekend of Sept. 11 -13.
Amy Grossman, president of the NC Folk Festival, in a press release said, “While we will miss gathering together in downtown Greensboro this September, we believe the high quality virtual festival experience that can be enjoyed from home in small groups of family, friends, and neighbors is the best way to ensure the health and safety of our audiences, staff, and artists during these unprecedented times. We are excited to produce a new way of showcasing folk traditions and performances through streaming and broadcast platforms. We will announce this Festival’s performers over the next few weeks.”
The NC Folks Festival recently announced that the Carolina Blues Festival would become a part of the Folk Festival this September, and although that partnership will be different from what was originally envisioned, the Carolina Blues Festival will be part of the virtual event.
The EMMY Award winning, 7 Cinematics has done live streams and broadcasts of performing artists including Kanye West, Dead and Company, Jack White and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
The NC Folk Festival is the offspring of the National Folk Festival, which was held in downtown Greensboro in 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2018, the North Carolina Folk Festival continued the tradition by hosting a variety of performing groups that represent a diverse array of cultural traditions from around the world.
What a waste of tax dollars and donations. Most privately funded festivals and concerts have simply postponed until next year. But when it’s tax money apparently it is OK to just burn it.
First of all the absolute safest course is to do nothing. Secondly the NC Folk Festival planners are going to recoup almost none of the money they are going to shell out for prerecorded content. Also the expense of advertising online and hosting the website etc. The fiscally and socially safe thing to do is be responsible with other people’s donations and to be a good steward for a live festival next year and not paying to produce videos. What a waste.