Maine Folklife Center Organizes
Material Culture For The National Folk Festival
Visitors at the August 23-25 National
Folk Festival in Bangor will find themselves wending their way
through the North Woods camp, as they walk through the festival. The
camp highlights the traditional arts of Maine’s people who have made
their lives and livelihood on or near Bangor, the gateway to the
north Maine woods. Some of the traditional arts to be featured in
demonstrations include basketmaking, snowshoe making, fly tying,
Maine guiding, boat and canoe making, wood carving, quilting,
tatting, weaving and knitting, and herbal arts. Visitors will be
surprised at the ethnic diversity of Maine’s people as manifested in
these arts. Native American, French, Jewish, Greek, Finnish, English
and numerous other traditions will be featured. In addition,
visitors will sample and learn how to make certain kinds of foods
like Finnish coffee bread, Acadian buckwheat pancakes and Chinese
egg rolls.
The festival is located along the
waterfront in Bangor with musical and dance events at five stages,
children’s activities behind the Maine Discovery Museum in Pickering
Square, cultural organization exhibits like the University of
Maine’s Hudson Museum, the Bangor Historical Society and the Maine
Indian Basketmaker’s Alliance. Some events will take place in tents,
others along the river out of doors. In addition, the Maine Folklife
Center will feature a narrative tent with storytelling and poetry as
well as explanation of traditional arts by artists and folklorists.
The event is free-so mark your calendar and plan to be in Bangor
this August.
- Pauleena MacDougall
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