Newsletters

Let the Countdown to the 36th Annual Anchorage Folk Festival Begin!

An Anchorage Folk Festival Newsletter

September 2024
 

January 23 to February 2, 2025

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ATTENTION!

Performer applications open on October 1.

Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website.

In This Issue

• Introducing the 2025 Festival Visual Artist
• 2025 Guest Artists…?
• AFF Board Feature: So Much Summer Music!
• Folk Festival Performer Application Information
• Thanks to Our 2024 Sponsors
• Kids’ Corner: Folk Instruments Word Jumble

Introducing the 2025 Festival’s Visual Artist

Choosing a visual artist to represent each festival is one of the most fun tasks that the AFF Board has. Anyone can nominate an artist. It doesn’t have to come from a Board member, though the Board must make the final decision since the artwork will be on posters, programs, T-shirts, sweatshirts, and hang over the stage. The Board usually reviews the options we have been given, look at their artwork online, and one of us will talk to the artist to make sure that they are interested and inspired by the idea of art for the festival. Over the years, the Anchorage Folk Festival has certainly been blessed with some iconic images from a wide variety of artists; we are confident that this year will be another! Please meet the 2025 Festival Visual Artist: Lee Post!

Lee Post, a.k.a. Post Marks, is an illustrator and community advocate in the heart of Spenard. His fun and uplifting illustrations can be seen all over our community. He offers well-loved comics classes all over the state. He also performs graphic recording to illustrate notes for meetings, conferences, and public events as they happen. In addition to his art, Lee retired from twenty-three years of work with at-risk youth but continues to work with kids in local schools and the community as well advocating for better treatment and housing options for youth. See Post Marks’s work online at Postmarks.graphics and on Instagram @Postmarks.graphics.

Guess Who’s Coming to Anchorage!

 

Summer Music in Alaska
by AFF Board Vice President Pam Pope

My outdoor musical experience started this spring with hearing Blackwater Railroad Company at Skeetawk ski area in Hatchers Pass, where I ski patrol. The third weekend in May, I headed to the Mermaid Festival in Seward for more Blackwater Railroad and many other local talents. The California Honeydrops at Creekbend in Hope was an awesome sunny outdoor concert; some band-member additions made this great band even better. Volunteer-run Arctic Valley had their Chugachfest solstice camping and music experience, and the free Girdwood Forest Fair was rich with local talent.

Then it was time for Salmonfest, on the Kenai peninsula, and this year it truly was a fun three days of sun, fun, salmon, and music. I’m a volunteer medic, and even from my perspective it truly was a safe, friendly, and great music-rich event. So many great bands…some of my favorites: The Devil Makes Three, Tim Easton, and local bands such as H3, Wiley Post, Hope Social, Luna and Ursus, and Roland Roberts Band. 

My year ended with attending the 22nd Acoustic AlaskaGuitar Camp that includes the Instructor Concert at the Wilda Marston Theatre at the Z.J. Loussac Library. We are so lucky to have amazing Instructors coming to Alaska; this year were LJ, past lead guitarist from Wings, and other professional award-winning artists such as Keith Yoder and Steve Kaufman from Maryville, Tennessee, Jackson Emmer, Jon Shain, Megan Gregory, and Gerald Jones. 

I couldn’t get to them all, so remember to consider catching Chickenstock, which is held in Chicken, Alaska. In Cordova, the Copper River Salmon Jam is a family-friendly, two-day, mid-July festival of music, poetry, art, and dance held at the ski area. It benefits Cordova art programs and is just a fun ferry ride away from Whittier.

I can’t list them all, and I don’t know them all, but they are a rich addition to music in Alaska in the summertime!

Helpful Hints on Applying to Play at the Anchorage Folk Festival

Are you ready to apply for a set this year at the Anchorage Folk Festival? If not, get cracking! Applications will go live on the website on the first of October and will close at the end of the day on November 1, giving you 32 days to apply. Here are some tips to help you through the process.

1. Know who your band members are when you apply. The application will ask for all those names.

2. Know your available dates during the festival to the best of your knowledge, so that the scheduling committee has good information to schedule your set. Evening spots are very limited, and you are more likely to get scheduled if you indicate a lot of availability.  

3. Avoid duplicate and redundant applications. We usually receive many more applications than we have sets. If you have multiple submissions under different band names, we are not likely to schedule all the submissions. We are trying to give everyone a chance to play, so multiples will be put on the wait list.

3. If you are not a member of the Anchorage Folk Festival, consider joining! A link will be provided from the application form.

4. The application requires a responsible person to give their name, phone number and email address. The scheduling committee sometimes has to call a band representative while scheduling.

5. Don’t be alarmed by the request for a link to a previous recording or performance. It’s not an audition. It helps us to schedule a variety of performances. If you don’t have one, it will not impact your chances of being scheduled.

6. Be sure to submit before midnight November 1, 2025. Late applications will not be considered.

7. The scheduling committee will maintain a waiting list of performers in case of cancellations. Make certain you give us a working email address and check it frequently if you are on the Standby waitlist. Email is the primary way we will get ahold of you. 

After applying, remember that your AncFF mainstage performance and lyrics must be family-friendly and in compliance with the Festival’s commitment to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of our audiences, staff, clients, volunteers, subcontractors, performers, vendors, and clients. Please plan and rehearse your set accordingly.  

Finally, remember that the set is 15 minutes long, but that includes your setup time. Plan and rehearse a 12-minute set, including your song introductions.

★

Performer applications open on October 1.

Information about applying and more will be coming soon to the AFF website.

★

We Greatly Appreciate Our 2024 Sponsors!

We couldn’t do this without the support of our sponsors. Their support comes in lots of forms—every bit of it valuable to us. Patronize them and thank them when you have a chance!

90.3 KNBA   •   Acoustic Alaska Guitar Camp   •   AKIMI   •   Alaska Airlines   •   Alaska Community Foundation   •   Alaska Music & Sound   •   Alaska Piping & Drumming Society   •   Alaska Railroad   •   Alaska Rock Gym   •   Alaska School of Music   •   Alaska Solar   •   Alaska State Council on the Arts   •   Alaskan Yurt Rentals   •   Alyeska Resort   •   Anchorage Concert Association   •   Anchorage Mandolin Orchestra   •   Anchorage Oral and Implant Surgery   •   Arctic Roadrunner   •   Baxter Senior Living   •   Bear Tooth Theatrepub   •   Both Ears Live Sound   •   Calais Company, Inc.   •   ConocoPhillips Alaska   •   Cynosure Brewing   •   Denali Brewing Co.   •   First National Bank Alaska   •   GCI   •   Guido’s Pizza   •   Habitat for Humanity ReStore   •   HDR   •   Hearth Artisan Pizza   •   Hotel Captain Cook   •   Irish Club of Alaska   •   Kaladi Brothers Coffee   •   Keys to Life Alaska   •   Dr. Tim Lethin, DDS   •   Mammoth Music   •   Marvin Woodworks   •   Middle Way Café   •   Municipality of Anchorage   •   The Music Man   •   The Nave   •   Nordstrom Chiropractic   •   Odd Man Rush Brewing   •   ODOM Corporation   •   Organic Oasis   •   John Absjørn Osnes   •   Paramount Cycles   •   Parlor in the Round   •   Peak AK Next Level Performance   •   Petr’s Violin Shop   •   Playful Arts Music Studio   •   Rasmuson Foundation   •   Recover Alaska   •   Reilly’s   •   Rising Tide   •   Salmon Berry Travel and Tours   •   Salmonfest   •   Santos Oil Search Alaska   •   Saturday Sensation   •   Shirts Up   •   Skeetawk   •   Sleepy Dog Coffee Co.   •   Society of Strings   •   Todd Grebe and Angela Oudean   •   Touchstone Executive Coaching   •   UAA Concert Board   •   WellRounded Arts   •   Writer’s Block Bookstore & Café

Word Jumble: Folk Instruments

Find the following words in the puzzle. Words can run left-to-right, top-to-bottom, or diagonally down to the right. (A print-quality version is available too.)