The Brooklyn Folk Festival presents the best in American and world folk music, a celebration of down-home music, cultural diversity and memory. The Festival is presented by the Jalopy Theatre & School of Music, a grassroots community space that is a music venue, music school, instrument store and record label. Since 2009, the Jalopy has created a substantial and unique community event that brings together thousands of music lovers and hundreds of musicians to celebrate the valuable musical traditions of the world’s peoples.

Afternoon Concerts
Main Stage

12:00pm Family Sing-a-long with Emily Eagan & Chris Q. Murphy
12:50pm Jacob Wysoski, blues and folk songs
1:40pm Bill Carney’s Jug Addicts, jug band music
2:30pm Clinton Davis, old time fiddle, banjo and guitar
3:20pm All This is a Record of My Search: John Cohen at 90 /Music / Films / Photographs, musicians influenced by John Cohen will play music from his years of work. Participating musicians include The Down Hill Strugglers, Inkarayku, Nora Brown, Peter K. Siegel, Tim Eriksen, Stephanie Coleman, Jerron Paxton and more!
4:10pm Tim Eriksen, old time songs and ballads, unaccompanied singing, along with banjo and guitar music
5:00pm Ever-Lovin’ Jug Band, original and traditional jug band music, from Canada!
5:50pm Stillhouse Serenade, old time, blues and country music

Parish Hall Stage

1:00pm Old-time string band jam session, lead by fiddler Stephanie Coleman bring your fiddles, banjo, guitars, etc!

2:30pm Artie’s Jug Workshop taught by the Ever-Lovin’ Jug Band – Learn to play the jug! (DIY bass instrument, it’s fun!)

5:30pm Square Dance!

Workshop Room

12:30pm – Film screening: The High Lonesome Sound (1963), a film by John Cohen
Songs of church-goers, miners, and farmers of eastern Kentucky express the joys and sorrows of life among the rural poor. This classic film evocatively illustrates how music and religion help Appalachians maintain their dignity and traditions in the face of change and hardship. The film features the noted Appalachian banjo picker Roscoe Holcomb and places him firmly in the context of the land and the people with whom he spent his life.

1:00pm – Film screening: Sara & Maybelle: of the Original CarterFamily (1981), a film by John Cohen
A rare filmed performance of two members of the original Carter family, whose recordings helped found the country music industry. Here Sara and Maybelle demonstrate their famous guitar picking and harmony singing on “Sweet Fern” and “Solid Gone.”

1:15pm – Film screening: Carnival in Q’eros: Where the MountainsMeet the Jungle (1991), a film by John Cohen
This groundbreaking documentary shows the remarkable Carnival celebrations — never before seen by outsiders — of a remote community of Indians high in the Peruvian Andes. Their culture offers important clues into the Inca past and the roots of Andean cultures.

2:00pm – The John Cohen Collection at the Library of Congress, Maya Lerman and Todd Harvey of the American Folklife Center discuss the breadth, depth and significance of the John Cohen collection at our national library, and how to access it!

5:00pm – Book event: Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s HiddenHistory with author Kristina Gaddy

7:30pm – Music performance by The Lil’ Dogies, Heather Summers & Walker Shepard, harmony singing duet, old time & country music, all the way from Kentucky!

Evening Concerts

Main Stage

7:00pm Feral Foster, original & folk songs
7:50pm Ba Ban Chinese Music Society, dedicated to the preservation, creation and presentation of Chinese traditional and contemporary music. Named after an ancient piece of folk music, “Ba Ban” literally means “Eight Beats” which is the structural basis for the grouping of notes in traditional Chinese music.
8:40pm The Lovestruck Balladeers, trad jazz, ragtime and more!
9:30pm Inkarayku, mestizo music of the Peruvian Andes w/ dancers!
10:20pm Jerron “Blindboy” Paxton, blues, old time and ragtime music

Parish Hall Stage

9:30pm – Salsa Dance! w/ Willie Martinez and the NYC Salsa All Stars