West Seattle's Thaddeus Spae performed trombone with the klezmer band Klez Katz at the 38th Annual Northwest Folklife Festival at Seattle Center May 25. The band performed its traditional Yiddish music in the Charlotte Martin Theatre. Spae also performed a solo set outdoors with trombone, guitar, harmonica and voice. CLICK ON PHOTO FOR SLIDE SHOW.
Thanks to four consecutive warm sunny days, and, of course, Seattle's love for folk music, the 38th Annual Northwest Folklife Festival was a huge success and it is believed the crowds were bigger than ever.
So how did things go this year?
"Excellent. Excellent. Excellent," enthused Kim Camara on Monday the last day of the event.
Camara is a West Seattle resident on the Folklife board of directors.
"We had a great selection of performers, young and old, and of the folk and modern traditions, a diverse spectrum," she said.
Camara believes the four-day total of donations may be the highest ever, but said the number has not been completely counted yet.
Camara's 10 year-old daughter Kadi performed in the Red Eagle Soaring Native Youth Theatre Program at the festival Sunday morning.
Also from West Seattle, musician Thaddeus Spae performed traditional Yiddish songs and his own compositions with voice, trombone, guitar and harmonica.
Folk music expert and Admiral Junction resident, Clay Eals offered a writer's workshop at the festival. He authored the 800-page biography, "Steve Goodman, Facing the Music," about the Chicago artist who penned the iconic folk song "City of New Orleans."
Eals also assisted his colleague Tom Colwell with his band, Southbound Odyssey, a large presence at Folklife Festival. That band performed a Pete Seeger tribute May 3 to a sell-out crowd at the Admiral Theater with some of the proceeds going to the Folklife Festival. Dinah Brein of the Admiral presented a $1,000 check to Rob Townsend, the executive director of Folklife.
The 38th Annual Northwest Folklife Festival was May 22 through 25, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. at the Seattle Center.
