New Jersey Folk Festival

Festival held each April in New Brunswick, Middlesex County, New Jersey, on the Douglass Campus of Rutgers University; begun in 1975; staffed for over three decades by women undergraduates enrolled in a course offered by the American Studies Department of Douglass College; from 1976, sponsored New Jersey Folklore, an annual publication which was transferred to the (now defunct) New Jersey Folklore Society in 1985; on a rotating basis, has focused much of its content on the folk life of different ethnic groups represented in New Jersey.

From the description of New Jersey Folk Festival records, 1974-2006. (Rutgers University). WorldCat record id: 154675225

The New Jersey Folk Festival is an annual, outdoor, daylong, free event held on the Douglass campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick. The festival is the culminating event of a Folk Festival Management class offered through the Rutgers American Studies Department (originally offered under the title "Special Problems in American Culture"). The festival is managed by a small number of undergraduates (approximately twelve) who apply to participate in the class. These students are supervised by New Jersey Folk Festival founder and executive director, Professor Angus Kress Gillespie. Each student acts as "coordinator" for a particular aspect of the festival such as general coordination, foods, workshop, children's area, business, publicity, grants, public relations, crafts, music, and art. Volunteers are also solicited to help on the actual day of the festival. Most of the planning takes place in the spring semester as part of Professor Gillespie's class.

For some years, the American Studies Department and Professor Gillespie worked with the New Jersey Folklore Society to produce a journal entitled New Jersey Folklore, later styled New Jersey Folklife . Students also worked to edit and produce the journal and records relating to it are found in this collection.

The New Jersey Folk festival first ran in 1975. It is always scheduled for the last Saturday in April, rain or shine, and is the oldest continuously run folk festival in the state. The Agricultural Field Day event run by Cook College occurs on the same day, so attendees have a choice of festivals and venues. Starting in the early 1980s, the festival has celebrated the diversity of New Jersey by highlighting a particular ethnic culture each year. It aims to inform the public of the rich folk traditions of these ethnic groups with a variety of activities such as craftmaking, food demonstrations, storytelling, and musical and dance performances. In the early 2000s, the festival has attracted more than 15,000 residents, students, alumni, and family members yearly.

The New Jersey Folk Festival is a multifaceted event. A printed program providing a full description of performers, presentations, and schedule of events is available to attendees. Musical and dance performances are usually held on two different stages at the festival, while workshops are conducted on a third stage. In addition to traditional American folk music, many of the performances correlate with the ethnic culture featured that particular year. Although many artists come from New Jersey, fieldwork is often conducted to identify performers that represent the annual ethnic feature. Some artists are brought from overseas and most are paid an honorarium. Student coordinators work to ensure that the festival offers food vendors with a wide variety of choices; volunteers in the children's area keep young children entertained; and vendors in a craft market display and sell clothing/clothwork, leatherwork, jewelry, pottery/ceramics, stained glass and other works.

Early in its history, the festival relied on food and alcoholic beverage sales to fund its activities; however, the University prohibited the sale of alcohol in 1988. Soon after, festival organizers solicited corporate sponsorships as well as grants from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts.

For more information about the Folk Festival and its history, see the festival web site, and the following papers by Angus Kress Gillespie, "The Founding of the New Jersey Folk Festival" and "Beyond the Ivory Tower: Reaching Out to the Community", which can also be found at the Folk Festival web site.

• 1975 - 1979 : Folk Heritage
• 1980: New Brunswick Folklore
• 1981: 200 Years of New Jersey Agriculture
• 1982: Holland-American Culture
• 1983: Hungarian-Americans
• 1984: Cuban Ties
• 1985: Living Scottish Traditions in America
• 1986: Italy
• 1987: Philippines
• 1988: Sweden
• 1989: Ireland
• 1990: Greece
• 1991: Haiti
• 1992: American Indians
• 1993: Lebanon
• 1994: Twentieth Anniversary
• 1995: Puerto Rico
• 1996: South Jersey
• 1997: India
• 1998: Chinese-American Traditions
• 1999: Blues and Gospel
• 2000: Women in Folk
• 2001: Portuguese-American Traditions
• 2002: Blues and Gospel
• 2003: Mexican-American Traditions
• 2004: 30th Anniversary Celebration
• 2005: Norwegian-Americans Traditions
• 2006: Charm of Korea
• 2007: Dominican-American Traditions
• 2008: German-American Traditions
• 2009: Anniversary Year

From the guide to the Records of the New Jersey Folk Festival, 1974-2009, (Rutgers University Libraries. Special Collections and University Archives)