The North Carolina Folk Festival remains completely FREE to attend thanks to many different kinds of donations: of money, of time, and of items.

The North Carolina Folk Festival began four years ago as the National Folk Festival, a FREE three-day event that was in residence in downtown Greensboro from 2015 to 2017. Picking up where the National left off, and now celebrating its second year, the North Carolina Folk Festival remains completely FREE to attend thanks to many different kinds of donations: of money, of time, and of items. This is especially impressive because each festival weekend generates about $15 million worth of economic impact for Greensboro’s community.

Unlike other music festivals that rely on the sale of admission tickets, the N.C. Folk Festival provides a weekend of diverse, high-quality, multicultural performances at no cost to its audience. The festival must raise the dollars needed to produce the event through grants, sponsorships, volunteers, donated supplies, fundraising events, and individual donations (including a $10 per day suggested donation during the event). 
 
One of the sponsors that has supported the N.C. Folk Festival since its beginnings in 2015 is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (Blue Cross NC), which will again sponsor the CityStage for this year’s festival weekend from September 6th–8th. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield NC CityStage is a festival focal point, and will host many performers throughout the three-day festival weekend.

On hand at CityStage and throughout the festival site, the volunteer-staffed Blue Bucket Brigade will offer attendees a convenient way to support the festival by dropping cash donations into their blue buckets. A new donation method will be added during this year’s festival as well: the DipJar. DipJars are small devices into which festival attendees can dip their credit cards in to make a donation—no PIN number or signature required. In addition, online donations [r20.rs6.net] are open for anyone interested in supporting the festival instantly.  

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