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Monday, May 30, 2005

NW Folklife Ain’t That Uncool

Posted by on May 30 at 15:22 PM

For the nine years I’ve lived in Seattle, people have always told me the NW Folklife Festival was utterly uncool. “They have face-painting,” my boyfriend warned as I walked out the door. But in the name of being a good Roots + Americana columnist, today I attended NWFF for the first time… for exactly 60 minutes.

I won't detail my entire hour (I need something for Border Radio column fodder next week), but I will say that in my roaming I heard local bluegrass upstart Korby Lenker serve up a cover of Bill Frisell's "Ghost Town" and his own catchy original "Papercuts," a fourth grader who deservedly earned 5+ bucks in tips for playing "Smells Like Teen Spirit" on the saxophone, and a flamenco rendition of "One-Note Samba." Yeah, I saw one-too-many people dressed like extras from Men Without Hats' "Safety Dance" video, but I also ogled a gaggle of fierce baby dykes and was impressed by the number of cute boys who actually returned my gaze and smiled.

I'm sure if I'd stayed longer, I'd have found things to hate on. But my only legit complaints were the same ones I have about Bumbershoot: Street parking is impossible, and having all those vendor booths clogging the main arteries in and out of Seattle Center makes it tough to flee in a hurry. Fortunately, I didn't feel especially compelled to do so.

I did notice some face-painting, but it was on two Goths, and I'm pretty sure they left the house looking like that. All I'm saying is, if you've always avoided NW Folklife Festival based solely on heresay, go check it out and make up your own mind next year. For chrissake people, it's free!