This Saturday brings a series of concerts to downtown Madison with a gathering of folk music performers.
The Madison Folk Music Festival will entertain crowds on the Capitol Square, in Lisa Link Peace Park on State Street and at Music Hall. The festival, put on by the Madison Folk Music Society, brings in a diverse crowd of folk musicians ranging from the Latin folk performers Sotavento to ex-jazz singer Vance Gilbert.
The festival will come as a fitting end to a summer of folk music in downtown Madison. The Folk at Four summer series brought live performances to Peace Park with two folk performers every Friday night from July 12 to Aug. 30. Folk at Four brought Madison folk musicians like Harmonious Wail and Greg Winkler as well as artists further away, like Chris Rosser of North Carolina and Peter Mulvey of Massachusetts.
Bill Fiore, co-chairman of the festival committee, was pleased with the Folk at Four series and said he would like to see its success carry over to Saturday's festival.
\By the middle of the summer it was going strong and by the end of the summer it was really excellent. We had some really nice crowds and some good times,"" he said.
Fiore said he was enthusiastic about the upcoming folk festival and wants to make folk music accessible to the downtown crowd.
""I'm looking forward to exposing more people in Madison to folk music,"" Fiore said. ""We brought the music to them rather than have them come to the music.""
This year's festival will have music in the morning and early afternoon at the Capitol Square and Peace Park with a concert at Music Hall in the evening.
During the day David Stoddard, Eric Hester and Josh Calhoun will perform in 45 minute sets. Later in the evening, Vance Gilbert, David Mallett and the Latin folk band Sotavento will perform at Music Hall.
While folk music unites the artists, they can all claim a unique perspective on it.
Gilbert found success with his release, One Thru Fourteen and toured with Shawn Colvin in the early '90s. His music strays into pop and country sometimes but is most solid at its folk core. He was at the folk festival six years ago and, according to Fiore, is ""a wonderful performer and very popular with people who know him.""
Dave Mallett tends to focus on the pastoral lyricism of folk music, with a catalogue of songs about the loss of American home towns and the changes in the rural landscape.
Sotavento strives to unite contemporary Latin folk music with traditional influences from the Latin America.
Raquel Gonzalez-Paraiso, violinist and mandolinist for Sotavento, said she looks forward to the Madison Folk Music Festival to connect with people of Madison.
""It's always nice to play Madison, to play for people we know or people who have been following the group for the past twenty years,"" Gonzalez-Paraiso said.
She said the folk festival is an opportunity to show how diversity is ingrained in folk music.
""That diversity can open the eyes of people to see that they're represented through music,"" she said.
Fiore said the Madison Folk Music Society hopes students will come downtown for the festival.
""We're all excited that it's happening. It's an opportunity for people to pick up a little folk music,"" he said.
