After 19 acts over three days, the 38th Lowell Folk Festival is a wrap - Lowell Sun
In the Rockland Trust Dance Pavilion on the second day of the 2025 Lowell Folk Festival, people of all ages dance along to the musical stylings of BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, a Cajun band from Louisiana. (Aleah Landry photo)
Lowell Sun
After 19 acts over three days, the 38th Lowell Folk Festival is a wrap
Performers from near and far dazzle crowds
LOWELL — The 38th Lowell Folk Festival is a wrap, and while the weather was uncooperative at times, Director Lee Viliesis said people really showed up for the food and music.
From Friday night to Sunday, the festival featured 19 different acts across four stages, each performing a diversity of genres of music, dance and comedy representing cultures from all corners of the globe. Friday and Saturday brought heat and sunshine for the festivities, while Sunday brought steady rain, followed by downpours that let up in time for the final acts of the night.
“We closed out at Boarding House Park with one of the biggest crowds for an act I had ever seen,” said Viliesis in a Monday phone call, referring to a performance by dhol and brass band Red Baraat. “They really brought down the house.”
Being the festival’s director, Viliesis said she had few opportunities to sit down and take in the various acts of the weekend for more than about 15 minutes, but what she did see, she was thrilled with, like fado singer Ricardo Parreira & Friends.
“Intermittently I was able to see Lil’ Ed. I saw about 15 minutes of the bluegrass band, and they were fantastic,” said Viliesis, referring to Crooked Road Revival. “I had a good time all over, even while balancing all the mini behind-the-scenes crises that always pop up every year.”
Other acts included Pan Franek, Zosia and the Polka Towners, a Polish polka group that made sure the crowd made good use of the dance floor in front of the Rockland Trust Bank Dance Pavilion next to JFK Plaza at opening Saturday, and played different styles of polka.
Around the corner at the Richard K. and Nancy L. Donahue Stage at St. Anne’s, Tlingit storyteller Gene Tagaban entertained a full crowd through music and comedy. At the same time at Boarding House Park, the Angkor Dance Troupe made Lowell Folk Festival history with their traditional Cambodian dances in front of a packed crowd by being the first performers in the history of the festival to appear for a sixth year, when no other acts had performed at more than five festivals.
The various acts represented music and cultures from all over the globe, from Irish band Solas, to Bamba Wassoulou Groove of Mali and Rhode Island-based Turkmen dutar player and bardic singer Oghlan Bakhshi.
