The Northwest Denver Folk Festival kicks off its fourth year this Saturday, October 3, at the Oriental Theater. The annual festival has previously been held in the spring, and this year's installment has been streamlined to one day.
Breaking with a traditional definition of “folk” for the festival, organizers Dustin Reid (who also manages the box office at Swallow Hill and plays folk-influenced music himself) and Scott LaBarbera (owner of the Oriental) have opened the festival to acts that have at least a solid root in folk music. So there will be blues artists, bluegrass, soul and indie-rock artists on the lineup.
The featured artist this year is experimental folk band The Haunted Windchimes from Pueblo, Colorado fresh off a month-long tour in California and Nevada so they should be in fine form. Closing out the festival is Moon Magnet Studios band Ancient Elk who beautifully weave together strands of bluegrass, folk, psychedelic rock and the avant-garde.
The festival starts at 3 p.m. and admission is $13 for the whole festival. The complete schedule can be found below.
3 p.m. - Lobby stage: John Hyde of Two Tone Wolf Pack
4 p.m. - Main stage: Grant Sabin
5 p.m. - Lobby Stage: Larry Nix
6 p.m. - Main stage: Laura Goldhamer
7 p.m. - Lobby stage: Paul Dehaven (of Paper Bird)
8 p.m. - Main stage: Jen Korte & The Loss
9 p.m. - Lobby stage-Genevieve Patterson (of Paper Bird) & Griff Snyder (of Inner Oceans)
10 p.m. - Main stage: The Haunted Windchimes
11:30 p.m. - Lobby stage: Ancient Elk