Folk Festival

The Philadelphia Folk Festival, the area's biggest party in the park for folk-music aficionados, returns to Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville next Friday to Aug. 25 for its 30th-birthday celebration. On tap during the three-day event will be performances by festival regulars Mike Cross, Roger Sprung, David Bromberg, Steve Forbert, Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, Richie Havens, Stephen Wade and his Band of Soloists and many others, plus, appearing for the first time together, Pete, Mike, Penny and Peggy Seeger.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival, a 36-year tradition that draws thousands of folk-music-lovers each August to the Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville, will be held, as usual, the weekend before Labor Day. The three-day fete includes five major concerts, two days of workshops, a full day of folk and square dancing, a ceilidh (Celtic music mini-festival), a new-talent showcase and all sorts of craft activities for kids. The musical headliners this year are Emmylou Harris, Keb' Mo', Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Trout Fishing in America, and Rosanne Cash.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival, celebrating its 45th year this weekend, has not been singing a happy song for a while. The festival has been suffering declining attendance and losing money for at least four years. After crowds flocked to celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2001, festival chairman David Baskin said, "things took a turn down and haven't quite fully recovered. " On total revenue of $1,070,376 in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005 - the most recent year for which data is publicly available - the Philadelphia Folk Song Society reported a deficit of $158,892 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Green tree-tips and a riot of tulips give good cause for a sigh of relief. The winter from Hades has past. Welcome above ground, Persephone. As if flora and fauna weren't enough, fairs and festivals are proliferating as well. There are lots, each with something unusual enough to pique a child's interest. Yours, too. So, out and about you go, before the heat and humidity set in. FOLK FETE. Henry Mercer could see it coming. Others tossed out their outmoded kitchenware, their antiquated farm implements.

The thing that Jack Williams likes about playing to 20,000 people in a hayfield is the closeness of it all. "The festival provides more intimacy for a greater number of people than any venue I know of," he says. "I think the people are focused very closely on the artist and the music rather than the event or the scene. " Williams, who will play Saturday afternoon at the 37th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival at the Old Pool Farm near Schwenksville, spent 30 years laboring in various unsigned rock bands before becoming a folk artist 10 years ago. He is celebrating his 40th year without a real job. "Back in my rock days," he recalls, "I played for 20 or 30 thousand people in a stadium and I never could see the . . . faces.

N.J. seniors ask: This is property-tax relief? My husband and I live in Cape May Court House. We are both on Social Security, as are most people who live here. Our property taxes were $5,000 a year. We received a new bill after a reassessment. We now pay $10,000. I think something is very wrong, since Gov. Corzine said property taxes would be lowered. Most people have lived here since the 1950s and are retired. They can't afford to pay these taxes and cannot sell their homes.

Michelle Shocked got downright primitive: guitar, voice, words. Yet when working together, those three elements provided a punch strong enough to knock over the sellout crowd at the Theater of Living Arts. In the first of last night's two performances in the intimate theater, Shocked played songs from her first two albums, told stories about growing up in East Texas and exhaled some poignant political beliefs. Shocked, dressed in a turtleneck, jeans and her trademark cap, got down to business right away, playing her singles "Anchorage" and "When I Grow Up," both from Short Sharp Shocked, as the first two songs in her 90-minute show.

Volunteers will roll up their sleeves and dig into their work at the Brandywine Valley Association's Myrick Conservation Center Saturday, joining a community effort to protect and restore the area surrounding the Brandywine Creek. "Essentially, we are a nonprofit organization and we don't have a lot of staff," said Dave Johnson, land manager for the association, "so if there are people willing to come out of their own good will and help us out, it's much appreciated and very useful.

The bulky, black iron furnace was running at full blast, and inside it sat a pool of bright orange, lava-like ingredients of sand, limestone and other minerals prepared for glass-making - the old-fashioned way. The way it was made more than 100 years ago - pre-Industrial Revolution. No glass would be blown into bowls or vases Saturday at the 25th annual Mercer Museum Folk Fest. The rain and the wind were working at full throttle, preventing Jeff Vanaman of Wheaton Village Glassblowers in Millville, N.J., from successfully blowing the heated mixture.

What's it take for a guy to open up his Roxborough home to a bunch of strangers for a folk concert from which he won't make a dime? A fan as well as a music maker, Jim Fogarty says he was "blown away" by a performance of seasoned British folk veteran Iain Matthews at the Bridgeton, N.J., Folk Festival last year. Fogarty, 23, and his New Zealand-born singing partner Lindsay Gilmour had also been on the bill, singing as the Soul Mates. "A couple of months ago, I ran into Matthews' American booker, Bill Martin, and said we'd love to do a show with Iain.

WITH FOUR stages and a wooded glen for kids' activities, plus a diversified food/beverage court and much enlarged arts/crafts retail zone, there'll be almost too many good choices for a visitor to this year's Philadelphia Folk Festival. Adding insult to injury - when you're sitting at, say, the Tank Stage, and can hear an enormous roar of crowd approval emanating from the Camp Stage, you might well fear you've "picked" the wrong songathon. But the truth is, you're sure to hear fine performers and solid material wherever you're sitting on the lawn.

At the Earthship booth, people will be able to pound tires that could soon become the foundation of a home. The Hemp Hut area will push a plant with myriad uses: oil, clothing, food, and paper. (No, it won't get you high.) And a small stage is powered by solar panels - the better for the Sustainable Living Roadshow to get its eco-message across. To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Philadelphia Folk Festival is veering green. Note to young patrons: Even some of the music is recycled.

Don't be misled by its name: The Philadelphia Folk Festival offers more than just folksy music. The festival is a small city of people, music, food, and fun that appears once a year in a Pennsylvania hay field at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township. We're fortunate that it's in our neck of the woods. So grab a blanket, chair and walking shoes and go out to the country, at least for a day, or two or three. Take the kids, too. The weekend's festival, offered rain or shine, is a very family-friendly spot.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival celebrates its golden anniversary this year, with many acts that have played the fest innumerable times through the years coming back to the Old Pool Farm. Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton, Tom Rush, and Jorma Kaukonen are in category. Old hands who've appeared slightly less often include the 11-piece David Bromberg Big Band, which shares a bill with Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue on Saturday afternoon, and Levon Helm, who headlines on Sunday. Local talent includes Birdie Busch, Hoots & Hellmouth, Suzie Brown, and Jim Boggia.

A FUNNY THING happened on my way to Schwenksville, chatting it up with some of the powers behind this weekend's Philadelphia Folk Festival. Given how the event is celebrating big - marking the 50th annual music fest (and gathering of the tribes) - I expected organizers to be waxing nostalgic about all that's been and gone. You know, "the good old days. " But then I got on the horn with Levi Landis, executive director of the festival's parent organization, the Philadelphia Folksong Society, and discovered he's a relatively young folknik of 29. Not much "history" to share there.

  Jacquelyn Daley seems right at home in a gold linen skirt, brick-color top, beige apron, and white shawl and bonnet as she goes about her chores. She pokes around the heirloom beets and beans in the garden. She checks on the rye bread or molasses cookies baking in the outdoor oven that she once crawled inside - to collect trays of fruit that had been dryingovernight. "It was still 120 degrees. The blueberries almost got singed," she says, casual about the possibility that she might have gotten singed as well.

FOR SURE, there'll be some very familiar faces at the 50th annual Philadelphia Folk Festival, returning to the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford Township in two weeks. Seasoned perennials such as Arlo Guthrie, Tom Rush, Tom Paxton and David Bromberg are among the guests coming back for the big birthday party, along with some of their rarely here contemporaries (Levon Helm, Jorma Kaukonen) and young turks of note like the Wood Brothers, Justin Townes Earle, Hoots & Hellmouth, Dan Bern and Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival turns 50, Aug. 19-21 at the Old Pool Farm in Upper Salford! Longtime festival mainstays, including Arlo Guthrie , the David Bromberg Big Band , Hot Tuna guitarist Jorma Kaukonen , Tom Rush, and Tom Paxton will be there. So will younger acts, including sacred steel masters the Campbell Brothers , superb roots songwriting scion Justin Townes Earle , and rising star Caitlin Rose . Cajun dance band Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys ( Ouais!

Live music and more, tonight through Thursday, compiled by Shaun Brady, Tom Di Nardo, James Johnson, Sara Sherr and Jonathan Takiff. POP . . . plus Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers: Good-time Americana rockers get the weekend rolling with a snap, crackle and pop, and hopefully lots from their new album "The Bear. " Roy Jay opens. World Cafe Live, 3025 Walnut St., 8 tonight, $25-$35, 215-222-1400, worldcafelive.com. Blonde Redhead: To celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Electric Factory at its current location, all tickets for upcoming shows at the venue have been downwardly priced to $15 for one week, starting today at noon and tonight with this rockin' bill.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival is back in rejuvenated form this year, also boasting the star power of Saturday afternoon headliner Jeff Tweedy (of Wilco fame) and Saturday night specials like Chris Smither (in a rare appearance with a band), Erin McKeown and Taj Mahal. At the same time, the fest has deliberately sought stimulating crossover talents who can appeal to a younger, "folk? say wha?" audience. We're talking the likes of piano popster Vienna Tang and quirky Bonnie "Prince" Billy (aka Will Oldham)