TPFF: Homegrown and Proud of It

By Charlene Porter

Sifting through 25 years worth of Takoma Park Folk Festival (TPFF) memories uncovers stories about great performances and near-disasters, about sparkling fall days and rain-outs, about musicians and volunteers who've come and gone, and those who've returned year after year. But in a quarter-century of festival lore, you won't hear a story about the day the TPFF organizing committee set out to reach a silver anniversary festival.
        "It's always been one year at a time," says TPFF Chair Lenore Robinson. She can remember times many years ago when the prospects for another year's festival seemed as bleak as the winter days in which planning for the autumn event begins. "There have been times in the past when we were trying to get started up again, and only two or three people showed up for the meeting. You wonder if you're ever going to be able to do it."
        Done it they have. Year after year, the community has produced the necessary creativity, talent, and energy to stage successful festivals. "So many people have done so many things for the festival that have allowed it to achieve a longevity that no one dared to dream when it began," Robinson says.
        One unfailing resource is the unusual level of creativity and artistry found locally. "I don't know which came first: the House of Musical Traditions [HMT], the Takoma Orchestra, the Takoma Singers, the Fourth of July parade music, the Street Festival the Jazz Festival or TPFF, but they all keep the music alive here," says Pam Larson, the chair of the TPFF Program Committee. "The local culture nurtures creativity, even eccentricity."
        House of Musical Traditions owner Dave Eisner has helped nurture the music scene locally and has been a member of the Program Committee. "There are a lot of people playing music in Takoma Park. I'm not just talking about American folk music. We have Andean groups, we have Cajun bands," he says, smiling as he shakes his head at the diversity of sounds and styles coming out of this little city. "It's a hotbed of musical talent."
        "It's not just musicians," says Terry Leonino who has lost count of the number of festivals in which she's performed at the TPFF with Magpie partner Greg Artzner. "This is an artistic community of some of the highest quality of artists that you could find in the whole D.C. area."
        Describing the scope of talent during an interview in her home, it's as if Leonino is describing a Carroll Avenue parade. "You've got dancers, theater people, puppeteers, painters, sculptors, everybody."

Roots in 1970s – Volunteerism, Community Involvement

Tapping the creativity of the community was an objective when Sam Abbott set in motion plans for the first festival in 1978. Artzner says Abbott, who was Takoma Park's mayor for a time, was well aware that he "was both planting a seed and reaping what was already here."
        The seed was a one-stage festival held on September 10, 1978 with 11 acts performing. It's grown to produce this year's harvest — more than 50 acts, with more than 200 performers on seven stages.
        The variety and diversity of the program rival those to be found at some of the nation's most prestigious festivals. But at TPFF all the performers are working without pay. The TPFF is a nonprofit event, and admission is free. The performers donate their talents so that some proceeds — from T-shirt sales, concessions, and sponsors — can be distributed to community groups. Those groups, in turn, donate "sweat equity" by joining other volunteers in doing all the jobs that invariably present themselves any time a crowd of some thousands gathers on a late-summer day.
        "Those performers see this as a natural way to give back to the community that nurtures them," says Larson. Artzner confirms, "A lot of us feel that one of the best things we can do with our music is to help raise money for things that are important."
        "That's what folk music is all about," Leonino adds, as if finishing a chorus that her singing partner has begun. "It's about community. It's about supporting each other…and making this a better place to live."

For the Performers, Festival Is A Special Gig

The pro bono contributions of the artists are one basis for what Eisner calls "the charm and splendor" of TPFF, but he also knows that musicians throughout the region consider a 45-minute set on a TPFF stage to be a pretty decent gig. Each year, the program committee has four to five times the number of applications than there are slots on the bill.
       For the performers, it's a chance for greater exposure to the local audience, not to mention a really good time. They have the opportunity to sell their recordings on festival day, and sales are frequently brisk at Eisner's HMT booth and at card tables set up alongside most of the performance stages.
        Scott Moore, another member of the program committee and a stage coordinator, recalls a performance at the 2001 festival when local favorites Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer brought songwriter-activist Pat Humphries on the stage to join them. "Pat absolutely wowed the audience," he says. "Midway through her one song, people were running up to the CD table" to buy her recording.
       Guitarist-composer Al Petteway is another Takoma Park musician who has lost count of his TPFF performances. He has a national reputation and a devoted local following, but playing the September festival with partner Amy White is always an opportunity to introduce his music to new listeners. The festival "is a way to broaden our fan base," Petteway says.
       Takoma Park "is just naturally given to community effort and to helping the less fortunate, so [performers] want to jump on the bandwagon" to be part of the annual festival, says White, a pianist and singer.
       With so many locally based performers contributing their talents to a worthwhile cause, a special rapport is created between these artists and the neighbors, families, friends, and coworkers who turn out each year for the festival. You see it with waves, kisses, and handshakes exchanged between performers on the stage and audience members. You hear it when sly jokes are shot from the stage at some red-faced friend in the audience. You feel it from the warmth that comes from the stage (and don't think it's just the temperature).
       "Those are special moments that in part come about because the performers feel so comfortable, like they're really at home," says Moore.
That "at home" feeling makes TPFF a special event for Artzner and Leonino. Magpie has performed in festivals in Europe, Canada, Mexico, and across the United States, and the duo can't name another event with the same intimacy they find at TPFF. "There are no walls between the performers and the people," Artzner says. "We know so many performers, so many people in the audience."
       Many of the performers at TPFF are in a close circle as friends, artists, and occasional collaborators. Each year's event brings unique moments when one artist joins another on stage to add a new harmony or another guitar. Pettaway says these impromptu collaborations are another reason TPFF stands out as a special performance. "It's nice to do it just for fun."
       White is nodding on the couch beside him. "The whole festival feels like a celebration," she says. "It's a block party, a giant block party."

Reaching the Next Generation

As TPFF now reaches the quarter-century mark, Moore says for some performers in recent years the special moments of connection with the audience have genuine history. "I've heard from many young performers that they attended this festival growing up in this area, so it has a special meaning for them," he says.
You might even call that "roots." In fact, Eisner does. TPFF has remained true to the origins that those young performers recall from their own childhood, at the same time that it has expanded the diversity of the program to reflect the rich, multi-cultural influences of Takoma Park and the nearby area. "It's oftentimes for many people a return to their roots," says Eisner.
The rich musical and dance traditions of Irish, Hispanic, Eastern European, Native American, and many other cultures have graced the TPFF stages through the years. Eisner has found that audience members rediscover the musical traditions of their own ethnic past, or perhaps experience an initial discovery of a form of music they've never known.
Magpie's Artzner says that diversity in cultural music forms and the quality of musicianship that graces the local area, make TPFF an equal to any of the professionally managed festivals in which he and Leonino have performed. But none of them, he says, can equal TPFF when it comes to atmosphere. "You also have this feeling of community, this feeling that this is a tremendous festival that grew up out of this little town."