The staff at Space Presents, the off-site events arm of the Evanston SPACE music venue, shared their plans for the upcoming Evanston Folk Festival at a Tuesday community meeting at the Dawes House.
With Canal Shores Golf Course still closed for renovations this summer, SPACE had to temporarily move its annual Out of Space music festival to downtown Skokie. To make up for it, Space Presents is organizing the local folk festival.
Spanning the section of the lakefront roughly between Greenwood Street and the spot where Forest Place dead-ends into Sheridan Road, the festival will include the entirety of Patriot Park and the Dawes House lawn. It will feature three music stages and a special tent for speaking events. The festival will open at 1:30 p.m. and close at 8:30 p.m on both Saturday, Sept. 7 and Sunday, Sept. 8.
For now, SPACE is only selling two-day passes, but it will eventually offer single day passes as well.
‘Holistic approach’
Tuesday’s meeting was organized by Council Member Clare Kelly (1st Ward), whose ward includes the folk festival grounds, and was meant to give residents a chance to hear about the plans and offer feedback.
Jake Samuels, director of Space Presents, said he wants to take “a very holistic approach” to planning the festival, and that he’ll take anything he hears to heart. For the most part, residents in attendance asked questions about the details, such as how the tickets will work. The meeting was scheduled to run from 6 to 7 p.m., but it concluded almost 20 minutes early.
Samuels said the folk festival grew out of conversations about “how we can keep a live concert event in Evanston this summer.” They decided to do something that would bring Evanstonians and out-of-towers downtown, something “Evanston could be excited and proud of.”
Jordan Lulloff, general manager at Space Presents, added that the south stage will be located at the Dawes House patio, with the audience sitting on the lawn. The north stage will be north of Arrington Lagoon, with the “main” stage on the parkland a little south of the lagoon.
The festival lineup includes more than 30 performers, with Sierra Ferrell and Patty Griffin as headliners. Samuels said the acts are mainly “solo or duo performers.”
The festival will also feature a “In-Conversation Tent,” which will host discussions and book talks. Samuels said programming in the tent will involve “high-level conversations” with musicians, journalists and writers.
“Evanston likes to talk,” he said. “For us, it felt like a nice way to separate ourselves from street festivals and music festivals. This is our celebration of Evanston.”
Traffic logistics
The stretch of Sheridan Road immediately adjacent to Dawes Park will be closed to all traffic during the festival, and east-west streets east of Forest Avenue will be open to local residents, Lulloff said. Set-up will begin on the afternoon of Friday, Sept. 6, and streets will fully reopen to the public by 9 a.m. Monday, Sept. 9.
The festival grounds will be fenced off, with entrances at Sheridan Road and Lake Street. Lulloff said there will be bag checks at entrances, and security will patrol inside and outside the grounds. SPACE will contract with Andy Frain Services, a Chicago security company.
Sgt. Chelsea Brown, an 18-year Evanston Police Department veteran who attended the meeting, vouched for Andy Frain, saying the company has worked security for Out of Space in the past without any issues.
“We’ve had a good partnership,” Brown said. “I expect it to continue at this event. I don’t foresee any issue in how smooth this is going to run.”
Getting the word out
Jill Sternheimer, who is helping SPACE with community outreach, said folk music is all about hanging out and building community. In that spirit, SPACE has been reaching out to Evanston community organizations to try to get the word out about the festival to as many people as possible. In a follow-up interview, Sternheimer said she has already spoken to eight to 10 organizations.
Complimentary tickets will be set aside, according to Samuels, so those organizations can distribute them to residents who might otherwise not be able to afford to attend.
In response to a question from a resident, Samuels said SPACE is planning the festival as a one-off, but he didn’t entirely rule out the idea of it returning in some form.
“If there’s outcry for more, that’s the conversation we can have later, and it [the festival] doesn’t have to be tied to any location,” he said.
Kelly told the RoundTable she has full confidence in Space Presents.
“I think it will really be a lovely event that will bring many people to Evanston,” she said. “I think the setting would be really ideal, at the lakefront. SPACE has top-notch events. I think this will be a tremendous benefit to Evanston, and reinforce us being a hub of arts and music.”
Editor’s note: This story has updated to reflect that the lineup for the festival has been released.
Organizers discuss plans for lakefront Evanston Folk Festival is from Evanston RoundTable, Evanston's most trusted source for unbiased, in-depth journalism.