Free Folk: Lowell Folk Festival

Lowell Folk Festival
Various Locations, Downtown Lowell
July 25-27
Free
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These days, the byword "free folk" can backpack a host of connotations, but the Lowell Folk Anniversary sticks with the one that has the broadest appeal: "free" as in beer, not as in freaky. This year's anniversary marks the 22nd year of chargeless folk music in city Lowell, if you calculation the three years that Lowell hosted the touring National Folk Festival, and organizers affirmation that Lowell's is the better chargeless folk anniversary in the country.

Even added glace than the chat "free" is the chat "folk," and the organizers of the anniversary accept interpreted it as broadly as possible. The accident appearance music from New England's abounding indigenous groups, arena continuously on six abstracted stages. Highlights cover Jamaican ska (the Skatalites), Louisiana Zydeco (Jeffery Broussard & the Creole Cowboys), mariachi and norteño (Boston's Mariachi Estampa de America), and Malian balafon (Medford's Balla Kouyaté). And vendors will action aliment from those New England indigenous traditions accepted for their deliciousness.

Lowell is a $6.75 commuter rail ticket away from North Station: a bargain when all the entertainment is free.