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Join Us In Butte For The Montana
Folk Festival, July 8-10, 2011.

 

After three years as the host for the National Folk Festival, Montana organizers have declined to fold up the tents for good. Instead, planning is underway to carry the traditions forward in 2011 with a new event that offers more of the same -- the Montana Folk Festival.

The name will change but the Montana Folk Festival will have almost all of the features of the National that have been a hallmark of its time in Montana -- six stages with continuous live performances by some of the best traditional musical performers in the nation, including Montana's finest, some of the region's best traditional artists, great ethnic and festival foods, a lively Family Area, and Folklife demonstrations and workshops that focus on a theme that highlights Montana's heritage. All of this too set in the spectacular setting of Butte, part of the Nation's largest Historic Landmark District and surrounded by tall buildings and the Northern Rockies.

If you would like to help ensure that the music continues, you can start by getting out your phone and texting to make a pledge to support the Montana Folk Festival. Supporters who agree that the music should continue now have a way to phone in their support thanks to Imagine Butte. The Imagine Butte collaborative, a 17-group community development effort, has launched a new mobile giving campaign – MTFEST – to continue the economic benefits of the Folk Festival in Montana. To show support, fans can now text MTFEST to 85944 to give a $10 donation.

Imagine Butte is challenging other organizations to support the effort to transition the National into a long-term, permanent tourism engine, which will continue to feature top national cultural acts, as well as highlight Montana’s heritage through a continuing Folklife Area, Family Area and art markets.

Based on tourist surveys, the free outdoor festival brought more than $20 million in new earnings for the state in 2009. When the dust settles and the economic impact for year three is measured, we believe it will be much larger for the third and final year, with an estimated 165,000 visitors to the event.

"Losing the chance to make this economic impact a permanent asset for Montana would be a tragic waste of three years of massive effort and precious experience," said Tom Staples, president of the Mainstreet Uptown Butte board, the Montana non-profit that invited the three-year national extravaganza to the Treasure State in 2007.

“The National Folk Festival is bringing tens of thousands of new visitors to Montana, and is helping to market the best of the state to new and returning friends,” Staples added.

“Tourism is Montana’s biggest industry, and in the tradition of bigger and better, we plan for the Montana Folk Festival that follows in 2011 to be bigegr and better than the National that has been hosted in Butte for the past three years,” said George Everett, Executive Director of Mainstreet Uptown Butte.

The Montana Folk Festival will continue to market the natural and cultural wonders of Montana to new visitors to Montana each July. From the beginning, the goal has been to build collaborations of arts and festival sponsors to ultimately support established summer festivals throughout Montana as well as to create a permanent base of support for the annual Montana event that starts in 2011.

To join in the conversation, visit us on Facebook or send an email to geverett@montanafolkfestival.com.

To learn about sponsorship benefits, interested companies and individuals can contact Mainstreet Uptown Butte by calling (406) 497-6464 or by sending email to geverett@montanafolkfestival.com.