Programs & Activities Music & Dance

Information

Special Thanks to Our Major Music Sponsor, City of East Lansing

The Michigan State University Museum presents the annual event celebrating culture, tradition and community. Music and dance stages -- sponsored by the City of East Lansing -- feature rhythm, sound and spectacular musicianship and combine for nearly 50 performances over the free three day festival.

(Artist names in blue below are clickable links to more information including biographical information and links to websites.)

The Great Lakes Folk Festival celebrates the rich traditional folk, ethnic and tribal music and dances of the people of Michigan, the Great Lakes region, and the United States. The nation’s earliest immigrants and settlers brought the performing arts of their countries of origin with them to their new homeland, where they encountered the land’s First Nations. Each of these peoples worked to maintain their unique traditions while at the same time adapting to new conditions and a rich confluence of cultures. Those musical traditions which we think of as quintessentially “American”—jazz, blues, gospel, bluegrass, old-time, Tex-Mex, Cajun, zydeco, cowboy and others—spring from the interaction and intertwining of these varied cultural roots. Today, renewed emigration from a wide range of nations brings new sounds and performance traditions to enrich our American cultural landscape.

The Great Lakes Folk Festival celebrates this musical legacy through performances by masters who learned their skills within distinct communities and who remain rooted in their communities. Their exposure to their performance skills is usually at an early age, learned firsthand (often within their own families), and what they perform is an integral part of their particular culture.

Traditions Showcases

The Great Lakes Folk Festival features "Traditions Showcases," comparative sessions featuring specific instruments like the fiddle or accordion and explorations of cultural and geographical differences and similarities in musical traditions.

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