GREENSBORO, N.C. — More than 150,000 people are expected to flood downtown Greensboro this weekend for the 77th annual National Folk Festival.
With so much going on, it can be tough to fit everything into one weekend. We broke down how you can maximize your time, and your fun, at the festival
Make sure you download the festival’s app on your phone. You can use it to schedule your day and figure out where the closest food truck, bathroom or stage is.
This Friday to Sunday marks the third and final time Greensboro will host the National Folk Festival.
“It’s just a great opportunity for you to experience cultures, traditions, that are perhaps not familiar to you and I think that’s really important to build community,” said Amy Grossmann, the festival’s director.
The first thing you’ll need to figure out is how to get to the festival.
“It’s so easy to get to downtown Greensboro,” Grossmann said.
If you plan to drive, the parking decks on Bellemeade Street, Green Street and Church Street will cost $10 a day, and they will fill up fast. If you want to avoid driving, the Greensboro Transit Authority is offering free bus rides to the festival.
If you want to bike, there will be designated bike parking lots set up downtown. You can also park your car at the War Memorial Stadium and take a free shuttle bus to the festival.
Once you’re there, it’s time to check out the 300 performers on the festival’s seven stages.
You can use the festival’s app to put together a schedule. Click on the “schedule” button and select the acts you want to see. Then click on “my schedule” to see the acts arranged in order and to sync them to your calendar.
All of the artists will also perform multiple times.
“So if you miss them on one stage, just look at the schedule,” Williams said. “There’s going got be an opportunity to catch them on another.”
The acts are coming in from all over, including musicians and performers from around the world.
The app will also show you where you can grab food from more than 30 vendors and downtown Greensboro’s restaurants.
The biggest thing festival organizers want you to know: there is something for everyone at the National Folk Festival
“If you come for bluegrass, great, hopefully you’ll find a great group, and hopefully you’ll find another amazing group or another artform that you’ve never seen before that you walk away loving,” Grossman said.