East Lansing Gears Up for National Folk Festival's Second Year

On the weekend of August 11, 12, and 13, a small army will mobilize and set up camp in downtown East Lansing. They'll assemble five stages, lay electrical cable, and prepare for the invasion of 100,000 people. It is time again for National Folk Festival-the second term of a three-year contract that

The National Folk Festival is the country's oldest multicultural traditional arts celebration. Music, dance, workshops, craft exhibitions, ethnic foods, and storytelling converge in a free outdoor festival that embraces the diverse heritage of Americans. For its stay in East Lansing, the festival is produced by a partnership of the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA), the City of East Lansing, and the Michigan State University Museum.

It was in part this partnership that helped the East Lansing win the National Folk Festival, a partnership that City of East Lansing Communcations Director and Festival Marketing and Media Director Judith Taran calls unbeatable. On the competitive application process, Taran said, "We really had an unbeatable package because there wasn't really an area of their interests that we couldn't say, 'We've been there, we've done that, we know how to do it."' The City could offer the expertise to support the festival, and the MSU Museum could provide the cultural education component that the NCTA was seeking.

However, with many mid-sized cities across the country vying to host the festival, competition was fierce. Besides expertise, competing cities must also successfully demonstrate they have funding to support the festival's three-year tenure. The City of East Lansing was able to secure $150,000 from the city, another $150,000 from Ingham County, and $500,000 from State of Michigan-more than enough for the first year. The remainder of the $1.8 million budget is taken care of by strong fundraising efforts and in-kind donations.

Once the City submitted its proposal, representatives of the NCTA came for two site visits. "We really had to do a sales job," said Taran, who took NCTA staff on a tour and introduced them to East Lansing business and community leaders. They wanted to know "where's the electricity, where's the water, what happens when it rains where are the wind tunnels ... they did things like counting ATM machines," Taran said. Apparently, downtown East Lansing had just enough, and word came a few weeks later that the city would host the festival the following year.

Plotting began immediately for what the organizers say is the biggest challenge of hosting an event of this size-logistics. "There are 900 people working, and they all have to know what to do, when," said Taran. The person in charge of this daunting task is City of East Lansing Events and Marketing Coordinator and Festival Programming Director Sharon Radtke. From mobilizing 400 volunteers, transporting 163 performers, to setting up food and craft vendors, and taking care of street closings, Radtke has a plateful, and she's not wasting any time. "We already have 85 percent of our volunteers for this year." Volunteers help with everything from transporting the entertainers to helping maintain the festival grounds and directing guests.

Last year, East Lansing had record attendance with 80,000 guests, the most in the National Folk Festival's 66-year history. This year "we are expecting significantly more, said Taran, saying the success was due in part to well-conceived and executed marketing. "I think we had a good marketing campaign. We had tremendous support from the corporate media community." This included donated airtime from radio and TV stations, editorial content in newspapers, and 150 donated billboards around the state. Added Taran, "We tried to keep our message very succinct and simple, lively and upbeat and fun."

Seventy percent of last year's visitors came from Ingham County, with the others coming from nearby cities such as Saginaw and Chicago, and a few traveling from the Upper Peninsula and locations throughout the country. The city hopes to attract approximately 100,000 visitors this year 100,000 people who will eat and shop at East Lansing venues.

Taran and Radtke say downtown restaurants and merchants benefit most from the volume of National Folk Festival visitors. "People come downtown specifically for this event, but then these visitors pass their businesses, and they buy their food, and they might stop in their store," explained Radtke.

"It's the same during the East Lansing Art Festival... I don't know if a lot of businesses do terrific during the art festival, but I think people see their businesses and then come back. It's just getting that familiarity with the downtown," said Radtke. Taran agreed. "It helps to make people feel comfortable coming down here. For many people, it's the first time they've been here, and it might be just enough to bring them back a second time, which is the whole idea."

During last year's National Folk Festival, the City estimates it earned $4.8 million in revenue, and this year it hopes to exceed that amount. "I think the audiences will be bigger, and we've streamlined how we spend. Once you figure out exactly where to put your marketing dollars, you start spending more efficiently," Taran said.

While most of the festival's financial support comes from corporate sponsorships, getting creative with fundraising has also paid off big. In an innovative effort called "The Bucket Brigade," a group of five to six volunteers pass a bucket through the audience during performances to collect donations. Last year, the City of East Lansing raked in $10,000 for the festival this way. "And it wasn't even that well organized," joked Taran. Radtke laughed, "People are chasing you down to make a donation." This year, they aim to enlist teams of bucket brigaders from the business community.

As they busily tie down the details of this year's festival, Taran and Radtke reflect on the success of East Lansing's inaugural host year. Said Radtke, "People, when they talk about it, it's almost like this religious experience. It's a very interesting phenomenon." And Taran added, "Yes, it wasn't just enthusiasm, it was almost reverence."