The Montana Folk Festival in Butte is coming up July 8-10 after being postponed for two years in a row due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It’s the largest free outdoor music festival in the Northwest and this year there will be over 200 musicians, dancers, and craftspeople performing and entertaining.
Friday’s show will feature music from Jontavious Willis and Andrew Alli, Cedric Watson and the Bijou Creole, Chuck Mead, Jeff Little Trio, Sugaray Rayford, Plena Es and Hot Club of Cowtown.
On Saturday be sure to check out the Montana Folklife Stage featuring some of Montana’s own musicians including The Celtic Quintet, The Montana International Folk Dancers, and The Tiernan Irish Dancers.
If you can only make it for a couple shows, Director George Everett told MTPR in an interview last year:
"Oh, the evening performances are the best, you know, like the blues on the original stage," he said. "Albert Lee performed here and that was just a killer. Shemekia Copeland … just some of the blues performers. One, oh, oh, one — the blues guy from Chicago who's a bus driver."
In case you can’t make it out, tune in for specials and live music from some of the top performers.
Here’s what’s coming up on MTPR:
- Tuesday, July 5, 8 - 10 p.m.: John Floridis will preview some of the artists on stage for this year’s festival
- Saturday, July 9, 6 - 8 p.m.: Some of the best music from Friday night’s performances.
- Monday, July 11, 8 p.m.: More music and highlights from the weekend’s shows
Find more festival info and schedules here.
Get yourself in the groove with these highlights from previous years.
MTPR's Montana Folk Festival programming is brought to you in part by Headframe Spirits.