The Champaign-Urbana area celebrated its fifth annual Folk and Roots Festival on Friday and Saturday. The C-U Folk and Roots Festival took place within several blocks of downtown Urbana for a weekend transforming a variety of Urbana’s local businesses into harmonious music venues. Locations included local bars, such as The Iron Post, Rose Bowl Tavern and Buvons Wine Bar, as well as more family-friendly locations, such as the Urbana Landmark Hotel, Heartland Gallery and Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center.  

According to Matt Winters, booking chair for the festival and University assistant professor of political science, this year’s festival’s mission was to build on the success of past festivals while staying true to its folk roots.

“This year, we (did) a lot of the things we normally do and (continued) to build on what has worked for us in the past,” Winters said. “I think the festival has done a great job of growing each year but at the same time staying true to its founding commitments.”

These founding commitments include paying homage to the rich tradition of folk music, storytelling and dance in Central Illinois. This year’s festival showcased an assortment of unique genres of music, such as alternative country, bluegrass, blues, ragtime, swing, folk-rock, Irish, Celtic, gypsy jazz and Mexican folk. 

On Friday night, Los Guapos, a three-piece band from Champaign, played for an engaged crowd at Buvons, located at 203 N. Vine St. in Urbana. This musical group combined rhythmic and melodic elements from Afro-Cuban, jazz, salsa and dub music to create a distinctive musical sound all their own. Champaign-native Amy Byrum took her daughter Diza to this performance, where she said the pair shared a lovely night of music and dance.

“She told me they actually cured her of her shyness. She got up and danced the entire show; we had an awesome time,” Byrum said. 

Along with a variety of musical acts, the festival also showcased an array of talented storytellers, including world-renowned storyteller Dan Keding. 

Keding has won numerous awards for his mastery in storytelling, including nine Storytelling World Awards and two Anne Izard Storytelling Choice Awards. Catherine Trofimuk, junior in Education, was one of the attendees at Keding’s performance. 

“I really enjoyed the storytelling, and think that the Folk and Roots Festival did an awesome job of getting great talent to come to Champaign-Urbana,” she said.

The festival also held educational workshops, which festival-goers could attend to learn different skills such as “reading an audience during storytelling” and “how to play a washboard as a musical instrument.” 

The C-U Folk and Roots Festival is a community-driven event set up entirely by volunteers. Brenda Koenig said she has been volunteering at the C-U Folk and Roots Festival since it began in 2008. She now serves as chair of the festival’s steering committee.

“Attendance has been up from previous years, but what has impressed me the most from this year’s festival was the talent level of musicians we were able to get,” Koenig said. “We have some crazy-good talent from all across the country, and I’m really glad to see people coming out and enjoying the work we put in.” 

Jed can be reached at [email protected].