Folk Fest finally makes it hard to stay away

I have a confession to make: Until last year, I had never been to the Philadelphia Folk Festival.

"And he calls himself a music critic?" you might ask.

Well, I had excellent reasons - or lame excuses, depending on your point of view - for never heading out to Schwenksville to the august Philadelphia institution. This year, marking its 48th anniversary, it comes on the very same August weekend as the 40th anniversary of Woodstock.

The fest began updating its programming last year in pursuit of younger festival-goers. This year, it begins Thursday with a nighttime camping-stage show featuring Jill Sobule and Deer Tick and continues through Sunday with a new-and-old mix that includes the Decemberists, Tom Rush, Iron & Wine, Alela Diane, Jack Hardy, the Del McCoury Band, and emcee and host Gene Shay, who cofounded the event in 1962.

That sounds like - and is - a pretty strong generation- and genre-spanning lineup. So if the Folk Fest is so formidable, why did it take me so long to get there - finally managing to see Allison Moorer and Steve Earle on a Saturday afternoon in August '08?

Well, for starters, there's that camping aspect, which makes a festival hunkered down on the Old Pool Farm in Montgomery County about 40 minutes from Center City a logistical challenge.

As someone who thinks contra dancing must involve Oliver North and Daniel Ortega doing the tango in Nicaragua, the idea of living out of a pup tent at a folk fest and praying - Woodstock-style - for "no rain" never seemed that appealing to me.

Second, there's a timing issue. As Shay acknowledges, until a few years ago, when it was moved earlier in August, the festival was usually held a week before Labor Day, when much of its aging audience was at the Jersey Shore or getting ready to send the kids off to school.

The real reason, though, that I never made it out to Schwenksville is simple: The music never compelled me to go. Not that I've got anything against folk music; there's plenty of Fairport Convention and all of Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music on my iPod. And from time to time, there was a booking that nearly lured me, like Mavis Staples, or Richard Thompson, or back in 1995, Earle, in his only previous appearance.

But as a whole, the festival suffered from a well-deserved reputation for being stuck in the past, a pre-Woodstock institution whose bread and butter continued to be acts identified with the '60s, like Janis Ian and Tom Paxton and Judy Collins, long after their moment had passed.

Thankfully, that started to change last year. After heavy rain hurt attendance in 2007, the nonprofit Philadelphia Folksong Society brought in outside bookers Jesse Lundy and Rich Kardon of Point Entertainment. Taking baby steps, they put on young acts like Juno soundtrack star Kimya Dawson and the Philadelphia freak-folk band Espers, unknown to the typical PFF attendee.

"At first I was uncomfortable," says Shay, 75, the DJ of The Folk Show on WXPN (88.5 FM), who still sounds uneasy about one of this year's acts, the blues-based rock band Heartless Bastards. "I thought it might be a real turnoff to our core audience. And then I realized that our core audience was dying off. They just don't exist anymore. Or they're too old to sit on a hillside all day, or too infirm to walk over the hills and dales of the Old Pool Farm."

The Folksong Society isn't nearly as well endowed as it was back in the 1990s, when it gave out grants to smaller area folk concert series. But the good news for the PFF is that, helped by a perfect-weather weekend at the farm - which turned out to not be so uncivilized after all, serving coffee from La Colombe and beer from Victory (this year, it'll be Yards) - attendance was up last year. And, festival organizers say, despite the bad economy, ticket sales this year are holding steady.

"Looking back," Shay says, "I think we're taking the right path."

Credit has to go to acts like prog folk-rock nerds the Decemberists and Iron & Wine, the nom de folk of introspective songwriter Sam Beam. The two, respectively, headlined the Tower Theater and Electric Factory on their last trips through town.

On Saturday, they're both on the PFF bill.

And on the undercard, there are the likes of harmony-happy buzz act the Low Anthem, local heroes Adrien Reju and Slo-Mo featuring Mic Wrecka, and rootsy up-and-comers such as Justin Townes Earle (Steve's son) and Works Progress Administration.

Taken together, it's an impressive slate of, in Shay's words, "People who have the essence of roots music in their souls and in their work - and you know they've listened to old stuff." And what it adds up to is a Philadelphia Folk Festival that's finally in step with the times, and one that there are no longer good excuses to stay away from.

The Philadelphia Folk Festival will be held at the Old Pool Farm at 1323 Salford Station Rd., Schwenksville, from Thursday night through Sunday. A full schedule and ticket information are available at www.pfs.org. A four-day pass for all events is $131; day ticket prices vary. Info: 800-556-3655.EndText