Fun Fiddle stuff at Folk & Roots
It’s the 13th year for the Chicago Folk & Roots Festival, our big party in the park (Welles Park, that is). Come on out for some fiddle-iscious fun this weekend. Actually, you can start tonight, Thursday July 8, at the 8th Midwest Fiddle Championship in Lincoln Square. Fourteen fiddlers have entered the Open Division to compete for $500 in prize money.
Gabby Pichardo & Juan Rivera, 2009
The Fiddle Contest continues on Saturday, July 10th on the Main Stage, with the Invitational Division. Five fiddle bands have been invited to compete for $1,200 in cash prizes, so long as they bring along some dancers to show how good they are at making people move. The invited bands include the Paulina Hollers, featuring Old Town School fiddle teachers, Elizabeth Lamberti and Jim Becker, the Cajun Vagabonds, Stil Nua (Irish) and Moravska Cimbalovka (Moravian).
Some of your fiddle teachers will also be hard at work at 3:15 on Sunday with a Family Barn Dance in the Dance Tent, including Jonas Friddle, Walter Hojka, Maria McCullough, Steve Rosen and Paul Tyler. Another good community dance takes place at 6:45 with Victor Pichardo and Juan Rivera and the rest of their Sones de Mexico compadres host a Fandango. Come a half hour earlier for a lesson in zapateado (Mexican clogging).
Wait, we’re not done yet. The Steve Rosen Band is playing a set in the concert hall for those who want a break from the heat. (Check the signs for day and time). Danny Miller is leading an old-time slow jam in the Welles Park Gazebo at noon on Saturday. And I, Paul Tyler get another shot on the Main Stage on Sunday at 1:00 with the WAZO County Warblers & the Fly Boys.
To inspire you with the fun of old-time square dancing, here’s a video of a dance I called at a festival in Indiana two weeks ago. Dancing around a big old tree is almost mystical.
Hope to see you there.
Filed under: General Interest,Paul Tyler by Paul | July 8, 2010 | Comments (0)
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