Baltimore Folk Fest Is Your Next BFF

Instead of the dank rock club we all know and hold dear, Saturday night (10/24) at the Ottobar in Baltimore will feel like a dose of fresh mountain air.  The 4^th annual Baltimore Folk Fest hosted by Alex Champagne will feature some of the most local and loved folk bands from Baltimore, DC, and Frederick, MD.  Doors open at 6pm and the 11 bands on two stages will run until close.

Baltimore Folk Fest is one of those annual hidden gems that have a genuine focus on community.  It’s truly BFF’s with the Baltimore folk scene.  Multi Instrumentalist Dan Cohan from The Manly Deeds chatted with us about his experience working with the festival and organizer, Alex Champagne.  The Manly Deeds have play all four years of BFF.

The festival seems to really reflect the “small-timore” aspect of the city.  Dan says “it’s a really cool festival; it reminds me of how the Baltimore music scene is like robust and healthy, but also small in the same way.”

There’s a lot of diversity in the styles of folk music on this years line up that Dan appreciates also, but it’s really the community feel that makes the event special.

Dan says “there’s a lot of cross pollination.”  Dan has also been playing with the Bumper Jackson for the past two years, so he’ll be playing with that band in addition to The Manly Deeds the night of the festival.  He also says that originally they were trying to coordinate having the Bumper Jackson’s pedal steel player, who’s a good friend, play the dobra with The Manly Deeds that night.

Alex Champagne also recorded The Manly Deeds most recent, self-entitled album release a little over a year ago and the band played at his wedding.  There’s clearly a close-knit community at work behind the scenes, but BFF does a good job of balancing that out and welcoming newcomers.  Dan says “it’s really good also because he also tries to push himself so it’s not just Alex’s friends bands festival.”

Lastly, Dan chimes in with a special note about The Manly Deeds performance the night of the festival.  The annual Baltimore lantern parade in Patterson Park is happening the same night, so Dan says “we made LED light suites that we’re going to be wearing from the parade” and “we’re going to be playing upstairs, on the floor which is kind of our favorite way to play.”

Baltimore Folk Fest - Saturday, October 24th - 6pm

Tickets are available at baltimorefolkfest.com

Artists lined up:

Downstairs -
6:30 - 7:10 - Sweet Saro
7:30 - 8:10 - Luray
8:30 - 9:10 - Big Hoax
9:30 - 10:10 - The End of America
10:30 - 11:10 - Letitia VanSant (leh-tih-sha)
11:30 - 12:10 - Bumper Jacksons
12:30 - 1:30 - Haint Blue

Upstairs -
7:00 - 7:40 - Ampersand Stringband
8:00 - 8:40 - The Plate Scrapers
9:00 - 9:40 - Katie Powderly & The Unconditional Lovers
10:00 - 10:40 - The Manly Deeds