Breaking Barriers Through Festival Culture with Daniel Jones

Coming off a 2023 Richmond Folk Festival high, I am struck by the way arts and culture festivals bring people together, especially those centered on music. For three days, musicians and cultural ambassadors from around the world congregate in Richmond to celebrate and educate people on their cultures and musical traditions. One of the greatest moments of the Folk Festival for me is always the round table sessions at the CoStar tent, where several groups from different traditions gather to discuss the roots of their performing art and showcase their songs and dances. In some cases, very interesting collaborations spring out of these sessions. People from disparate parts of the globe come together in harmony and with respect for each other. It is an honor and a privilege to experience something like this. In a recent team meeting, our CultureWorks President, Scott Garka, remarked how beautiful it is to see not just a diverse crowd at the Folk Festival but also a wide range of ages present. It is a celebration not only of diversity but of being together.  

The Folk Festival weekend reminded me of another great festival I attended in 2023, MerleFest. MerleFest is an Americana and roots festival that takes place in April every year on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Musicians from around the country and the world come to perform traditional American music. It is part entertainment and part cultural preservation. Think Richmond Folk Festival with an emphasis on traditional American music styles. Musicians play everything from blues and gospel to country and bluegrass. There are plenty of banjos, mandolins, and guitars with the occasional washboard or washtub bass. People from all walks of life attend MerleFest with the same genial spirit found at the Richmond Folk Festival. No agendas, no politics, just love for the music and an appreciation for being together.  

I have been to MerleFest probably ten times starting in the 90s. As far back as I can remember, the Festival was predominantly attended by white, middle-aged folks in the early days. However, this year (the first time I had been in ten years), I was happy to see a much more diverse crowd. This is evident not only in the attendees, but in the musical acts performing on stage, as well. 2023 saw an all Black showcase on the main stage, I Draw Slow from Ireland, and the youngest talent I have ever seen at MerleFest. Bands and musicians in their teens and 20s seemed to be everywhere on stage. This was encouraging to see because it shows that the music not only transcends generational lines, but that the rich traditions of American roots music are alive and well in the hands of young people tending the cultural flame. Musical traditions once thought to be dying out are being preserved for generations to come. Everywhere you looked young people were listening to this music, surely in some cases for the first time. Families, sometimes three generations of them, were there together. Grandmother, mother, and child bonding with music. 

Another similarity with the Richmond Folk Festival was the rain. This year, Saturday was a soaker. At MerleFest, it rained all day every day. The festival grounds became a morass of mud.  Yet, the weather did not stop people from coming together and celebrating the diversity that is Americana and roots music with smiles on their faces. At the end of one day at MerleFest, my father and I were walking back to the car and a double rainbow appeared in the sky. I can’t think of a more appropriate symbol to represent such a beautiful weekend.