Folk Fest finally makes it hard to stay away

I have a confession to make: Until last year, I had never been to the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

"And he calls himself a music critic?" you might ask.

Well, I had excellent reasons - or lame excuses, depending on your point of view - for never heading out to Schwenksville to the august Philadelphia institution. This year, marking its 48th anniversary, it comes on the very same August weekend as the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.

The fest began updating its programming last year in pursuit of younger festival-goers. This year, it begins Thursday with a nighttime camping-stage show featuring Jill Sobule and Deer Tick and continues through Sunday with a new-and-old mix that includes the Decemberists, Tom Rush, Iron & Wine, Alela Diane, Jack Hardy, the Del McCoury Band, and emcee and host Gene Shay, who cofounded the event in 1962.

That sounds like - and is - a pretty strong generation- and genre-spanning lineup. So if the Folk Fest is so formidable, why did it take me so long to get there - finally managing to see Allison Moorer and Steve Earle on a Saturday afternoon in August '08?

Well, for starters, there's that camping aspect, which makes a festival hunkered down on the Old Pool Farm in Montgomery County about 40 minutes from Center City a logistical challenge.

As someone who thinks contra dancing must involve Oliver North and Daniel Ortega doing the tango in Nicaragua, the idea of living out of a pup tent at a folk fest and praying - Woodstock-style - for "no rain" never seemed that appealing to me.

Second, there's a timing issue. As Shay acknowledges, until a few years ago, when it was moved earlier in August, the festival was usually held a week before Labor Day, when much of its aging audience was at the Jersey Shore or getting ready to send the kids off to school.

The real reason, though, that I never made it out to Schwenksville is simple: The music never compelled me to go. Not that I've got anything against folk music; there's plenty of Fairport Convention and all of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music on my iPod. And from time to time, there was a booking that nearly lured me, like Mavis Staples, or Richard Thompson, or back in 1995, Earle, in his only previous appearance.