The 67th Annual National Folk Festival will be held THIS WEEKEND (Oct 7-9) in downtown Richmond, VA! This is one of the longest running North American folk festivals in existance, featuring mostly big-name American roots music and music of American immigrant groups. Some of this years featured acts are:

Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys (Appalachia)
Cheick Hamala Diabate (Ghana)
Dervish (Ireland)
Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars (Klezmer)
Ivo Papsov and Yuri Yunakov and their Bulgarian Wedding Band (Bulgaria)
Los Pleneros de la 21 (Puerto Rico)
J. P. Cormier (Cape Breton)
Marcia Ball (Texas)
Mariachi Los Camperos de Nati Cano (Mexico)
Savoy Family Band (Cajun)
The Madison Hummingbirds (gospel brass band)
a complete list and description can be found here: http://www.nationalfolkfestival.com/events_performers.html

The festival is FREE (although there is a fairly vigorous appeal for on-the-spot donations), and goes on rain or shine (unfortunately, it looks like our East Coast drought has chosen to end this Friday...)

I've worked on crew for the National for over 15 years now, and it's always been a fantastic mix of music. Any 'Catters within reach of Richmond should plan to come by at least one day (Ralph Stanley will only be there on Sunday) - if you pass by a workshop-looking area with an office trailer labelled "Festival Operations", poke your head in and say hi - I'll be the harassed-looking person trying to talk on two walkie-talkies annd the telephone simultaneously!