Performers at the Mystic Sea Music Festival are very accessible to talk to (though not monopolize), and if you go to the late night pub sings (for which there is no fee), everyone sings along but instruments are rarey used. It's a sing! It's easy to say hello to performers at the New Bedford (Massachusettts) Folk Festival (formerly Summerfest), too, but again one shouldn't monopolize them. The same is true at New Bedford's Working Waterfront Festival . At all these festivals, the best time to say hello is when they move from one stage to another, but often they have limited time to get to the next stage, and you shouldn't slow them down. Maybe festivals should schedule some time for jam sessions.