Bands cooked and booties shook. Songs thrilled throngs. Golf carts whirred and whisked.
Weather that was close to perfect reigned, with “skies bluer than robin’s eggs” in uptown Butte. Performers from miles or even oceans away expressed appreciation for the venues, the skillfully mixed sound, the enthusiastic crowds, the headframe towering above the main stage like a monument.
Fans in full boogie mode ranged from toddlers to dodderers and every age in between.
Sunday started mellow, as Sundays probably should, at the Montana Folk Festival. But then Ken Heath and the True Disciples, a gospel group from North Carolina and Virginia, raised voices and spirits.
Heath was especially complimentary about the festival, even citing organizer George Everett by name. Heath said his group was ecstatic and elated to be performing in Butte, where he said the surrounding peaks made Virginia’s mountains look small.
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And then Ken Heath and the True Disciples brought many people in the crowd to their feet, clapping and snapping fingers. During one song, Heath left the stage and danced with the jubilant crowd assembled down front.
The 2023 Montana Folk Festival returned this weekend to Uptown Butte. Music genres included blues, jazz, Irish, New Orleans funk, bluegrass, gospel, Quebecois a cappella, conjunto fiddle, Congolese-Angolan, Native American drumming, Western swing, Zydeco, Cuban, Korean traditional music, Afghani folk and more.
The band Red Baraat, from Brooklyn, was a favorite Saturday at the main stage at the Original headframe. Sunny Jain, a group founder, has said the band hopes to “unite people of all backgrounds and ethnicities to partake in the exuberance of life through the universal language of music.” That seemed to happen Saturday afternoon.
Cyril Neville and his band brought a deeply funky performance to the Dance Pavilion on Friday night. The band’s charismatic bass player and its deft drummer provided the rooted rhythm needed for the group to produce an infectious and haunting accompaniment to Neville’s singing.
Redd Volkaert entertained the crowd at the Original on Friday night with his tight and tasty Telecaster playing and dry wit. Another favorite at the main stage was Kiki Valera y Son Cubano, a band whose sound compelled many people to stand up and move.
Considering the size of the crowd and the availability of adult beverages, mishaps seemed few. Two women sitting on a jackleg fence were pitched backwards into the grass Saturday when a rail cut loose. It seems they suffered injury only to their sense of dignity.
By Sunday, much of the fence had been cordoned off.
There seemed to be a refreshing belief among organizers that most people drawn to a folk festival will behave.
There was no official crowd estimate available Monday for the free Montana Folk Festival. But the event clearly brought thousands of people to Uptown Butte over three days, including festival-goers from nearby cities and nearby states as well as far-flung places, too.
The 2024 Montana Folk Festival, its 15th presentation, will be July 11-13.