The 36th Annual Anchorage Folk Festival! featuring Guest Artists AJ Lee and Blue Summit and Corey Ledet Zydeco!
The full festival schedule will be posted here shortly. In the meantime, please consult the following pages for schedules of Main Stage and Folk Week performance sets at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium and at venues around Anchorage as well as Workshops held at the Wendy. All events listed here are free and open to the public!
Schedule Of Events
Main Stage
Guido’s Paddleboat Jam 1:00 pm
Jam group who meet every Tuesday at Guido’s Pizza on International Airport Road from 7pm–9pm. All playing levels are welcome to come join. A large number of community members who love playing music together.
We Might Panik 1:15 pm
We started playing as a duo in 2018 and play blues, soft rock, ballads, covers, and originals. We have been honored to be chosen to play the folk fest since 2020 and mostly play at open mics around the Mat-Su Valley. Scott Oviatt – guitar and mandolin; Becky Oviatt – vocals, hand percussion
Amy Helkenn 1:30 pm
Solo voice and piano performance of pop tunes. Amy Helkenn, vocals and piano
Gary Stedman 1:45 pm
I play an eclectic mix of classic rock, country, folk, and blues. Gary Stedman – guitar and vocals
Three Little Birds 2:00 pm
Three Little Birds is comprised of Megan Webb, Amanda Cash, and Emily Madsen. All three are busy musicians, educators, and parents here in Anchorage. This is their second time performing together at Anchorage Folk Fest. Megan Webb – guitar, bass, and vocals; Amanda Cash – guitar and vocals; Emily Madsen – violin
Jim Pfeiffenberger 2:15 pm
Ethereal sounds of the handpan, a truly 21st Century instrument. Jim Pfeiffenberger – handpan
Keil and Brown 2:30 pm
We are two friends who enjoy playing music together when schedules allow. We draw our repertoire from traditional Irish tunes, heartfelt Country ballads, and other folky sources. Only one of us will play the guitar and sing at a time. We are back after a 4-year hiatus of playing at the folk festival! Kohl Keil – acoustic guitar, electric bass, vocals; Trevor Brown – fiddle, penny whistle, acoustic guitar, vocals
Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs 2:45 pm
If Jerry Garcia and Tom Waits made an Appalachian music duo, it might sound a little like the Brown Mountain Lightning Bugs. Hailing from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Zack and Kendra Harding blend the traditional with the trippy to create original music they like to call "folk(ish)." The two have played extensively throughout the US, as well as toured internationally. Their unique blend of sounds and easygoing personalities have earned the duo slots at Mill Farm Music Party (UK), Mallarme Dynamic Duos, Rockwood Music Hall, Piedmont Folkways, and more. Kendra Harding – vocals, guitar, melodica, percussion; Zack Harding – vocals, guitar, bouzouki, banjo, harmonica
Alaska Jumping Flea Society 3:00 pm
The Alaska Jumping Flea Society is made up of community members who just love to have fun playing the ukulele together. An all-ukulele band.
Ben Balivet and the Acoustic Oosik 3:15 pm
We are an original Alaskan rock/ folk/alt band. We play live all around Alaska and have performed at several Anchorage Folk Festivals, the Alaska State Fair, the Iditarod Finish Celebration in Nome and many venues throughout Alaska! We want to offer our unique style of music to the Folk Festival with hopes of providing something entirely different to this year’s lineup! Ben Balivet, Bruno Zinno, Matt Kimmel
Twisted Tunes 3:30 pm
A diverse group of musicians who enjoy harmonizing to classic tunes and creating "music with a twist" for all ages. Felicia Cassel – vocals; Erica Ivy – vocals; Joan Unger – vocal and mandolin; Natalie Tucker – vocal and bass uke; Tim Tucker – vocal and guitar
Jane Goody’all 3:45 pm
Two idiots from different climates trying to make music together 2,000 miles apart. Finger picking guitar, flute, pennywhistle duet, singing harmony. Who knows! Short and sweet. Willow Feighery and Elliot Lowell (this may change!)
Anna Joy 4:00 pm
This goth-adjacent party princess is a public servant by day and a folk-punk singer-songwriter by night. A mother of five, she puts her heart and soul into everything she does, whether it’s writing a searing anthem or tucking her kids in at night. Follow her (and her mandolin, Florence) on Instagram for performance dates: @nightingaleak. Anna Joy Luckett-Ariel – mandolin and vocals
Uncle Jim, The Eastside Balladeer—aka Jim Haack 4:15 pm
Uncle Jim loves to play and and sing a variety of musical styles: Blues, Folk, Bluegrass, Country, Old-Time Rock and Roll, Vintage Rhythm and Blues. Great music for toe-tapping or singing along. Jim Haack – guitar and vocals
TuckerTunes 4:30 pm
Tim and Natalie Tucker (TuckerTunes) are a husband-and-wife singer/songwriter duet specializing in twisted covers, clever originals, and delicious harmonies. They are lifelong Alaskans with extensive backgrounds in music and theater. The Tuckers have been composing, recording, and performing together for 13 years and counting! Natalie Tucker and Tim Tucker – nylon string guitar and bass ukulele
Ruby Rakes 4:45 pm
Ruby Rakes is a bluegrass collective that came together at the monthly jam at Organic Oasis and made their debut at the 2024 Anchorage Folk Festival. Since that first performance, they have brought their style of "dadgrass" to various stages throughout Alaska. Mike Doyle – guitar; Patrick Flaherty – mandolin; Ryan McLaughlin – fiddle; Sashi Parameswaran – guitar; Eric Stuart – bass
starting at 7 pm
terry re.e.d 7:00 pm
terry re.e.d performs original compositions about his life and travels in Alaska over the last 20 years, and the prior years in the Lower 48. This is his 50th year of playing and performing music, originally coming to Alaska to teach and live. terry re.e.d, singer/songwriter – guitar, harmonica, mandolin, vocals
The Forest That Never Sleeps 7:15 pm
As a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, songwriter, and poet, The Forest That Never Sleeps transports her audience with infectious enthusiasm and raw emotion. From rhapsodic piano lines to gentle finger-picked strings, her dynamic performances leave her audiences feeling connected to the human; experience. Kat Moore – piano/vocals
Mountain Waxwings 7:30 pm
Soaring bluegrass harmonies from these Matanuska Valley girls. Suzy Crosby – guitar and vocals; Melanie Keenan – fiddle and vocals; Jessica Campbell – vocals
The Chillys Quartet 7:45 pm
The Chillys sing barbershop and more, but barbershop is at the top of the list! All of us also belong to Alaska Sound Celebration, the local Woman’s barbershop chorus in Anchorage. We are all varying degrees of chilly except our bass who is never chilly. And a fun fact about us is we all live on a cul-de-sac but not the same one. Liesl Davenport – tenor; Stacy Miller – lead; Cheryl Ekstrom – baritone; Janet Henry – bass
Formerly Rude Mechanicals 8:00 pm
Acoustic band plays original songs with a jazzy flair. Jeff Silverman, Bob Clark, and friends
The B Sharps 8:15 pm
Good people playing good music. Ezzy Allwright- Cello; Eric Rodgers- fiddle, mandolin, and maybe three other instruments; and some strays off the street!
Rogues and Wenches 8:30 pm
Wild escapades, blooming romance, and the ever-present risk of dying at sea, still longing for the rolling hills of Ireland. Songs of the sea, sporting an Irish pub-song flair with all the salty tang of the pirate adventures you’ve been yearning for! Singer/songwriter Devin Frey sings and plays his acoustic guitar. Hunter Woofter sings and is our percussionist playing the bodhran, cajón, bones, and djembe. Erin Wells is a lead singer and plays the flute, Elena Gonzales is a lead singer who plays the tambourine, Harrison Jennings plays both mandolin and fiddle, and Lucia Tappero plays the piano accordion.
Corey Ledet Zydeco 8:45 pm
Twice-Grammy-nominated Corey Ledet, inducted into the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in 2024, infuses old and new styles of Zydeco and blues into his own unique sound. "Ledet keeps one foot in the tradition of Chenier and Stanley ‘Buckwheatʼ Dural while still exploring styles of Zydeco," says Richard Ludmerer of Making a Scene magazine. This rocking dance party is the ideal way to end the 2025 Anchorage Folk Festival!
Click Here To Workshops
