With less than two months until the festival, organizers have announced the remaining performer groups to the previously released list of performers coming for the Montana Folk Festival in Butte, July 8th-10th. More than 200 artists representing a broad diversity of musical and cultural traditions will perform on the festival’s six stages in Uptown Butte. The final performing groups confirmed for the 2016 Montana Folk Festival are: Conjunto artists Grupo Conteno, swing group Western Union, bluegrass and mountain gospel band Virginia Luthiers, Carson Peters and Iron Mountain Band with some Tennessee bluegrass, Jason D. Williams with Boogie Woogie Piano, Orchestra Afrisa International will bring Congolese Rumba Soukous all the way from the Congo, cajun artists BeauSoleil Trio avec Michael Doucet, and Michael Mwenso and the Shakes will round out the list with some jazz. This fills out the lineup for the festival’s six music performance stages that will run continuously throughout the festival weekend.
No admission is charged for any performance over the three days of the festival, but attendees are encouraged to “Pony Up” with a contribution in the colored buckets of $20 for an individual and $25 for a family each day if they like what they find at the festival to ensure that it continues for years to come. “We have our lineup set and we can now tell everyone what they can look forward to when they come to Butte this July,” said George Everett, Festival Director. “For any one of these performers, you could expect to pay $20 to $40 to see them at another venue. One of the performers coming, for example, played Carnegie Hall in April. These performers will all be in Butte throughout the festival weekend and admission to all shows will be the same–free, thanks to the generosity of our many sponsors who “Pony Up” $50 to $50,000 so that this festival lives on. We will let attendees decide for themselves as they plan how they will take it all in, but this may be our most varied group of traditional performers yet.” Everett added, “there will be plenty of excitement for everyone. They should plan to come expecting to be amazed.”
Learn more about these and other Festival artists at montanafolkfestival.com/. •
