Duluth International Folk Festival Posts

Postcard from the Duluth Folk Festival

This postcard, published by Gallagher’s Studio of Photography, shows a typical scene from the Duluth International Folk Festival at Leif Erikson Park. The postcard was mailed 60 years ago today — Aug. 6, 1962 — by someone named Sara who mentions attending the festival in her message on the back of the card.

Duluth You & Me: Duluth Folk Festival

The Duluth International Folk Festival was an annual event held at Leif Erikson Park on the first weekend of August. It was first held in the 1940s. It was held at Bayfront Festival Park from 1990 to 1996 during construction of the I-35 freeway tunnels and Lakewalk trail. The festival returned to Leif Erikson Park in 1996, but in 2005 it was moved back to Bayfront and renamed the Duluth Festival of Cultures. The new name was intended to emphasize it was a cultural event and not a festival of folk music. For whatever reason, the whole thing fizzled out shortly after the change, with the final event held in 2007. During its peak, the festival drew crowds exceeding 10,000 people.

Use the link below for a printable PDF for your drawing and coloring pleasure.
Duluth You & Me: Duluth Folk Festival

Follow the Duluth You & Me subject tag to see additional pages. For background on the book see the original post on the topic.

Summer of ’65: Weather Pushes Folk Festival to Armory

DNTcover8Aug1965

Fifty years ago — Aug. 8, 1965 — the DNT reports the 18th annual Duluth International Folk Festival abandoned its home at Leif Erikson Park to avoid rainy conditions, moving the party across the street to the Duluth National Guard Armory.