By Craig Horleman

In its first year, it was called the Field Farm Friends of Folk Fall Fling. Thankfully, the name didn’t stick around, but the event sure has.

This weekend will be the 30th edition of the Delmarva Folk Festival. Tonight brings the Folk Hero Contest, and Saturday will see a full day of music from noon-10 p.m.

And it all happens on Lonnie Field’s farm on Downs Chapel Road in Clayton, where it has for all 30 years. The first one was in 1992, and the longtime musician still remembers it well.

“I had been going to music festivals like the Philly Folk Festival for years. And so, for a couple years, I started kicking around the idea of having something out here on our farm. And there was a spot that I had picked out where I thought, that would be a really nice place to do it,” Mr. Field recalled earlier this week.

“And so after a couple years of kicking the idea around, I talked to quite a few folks, and then, we all got together, and I showed them where I thought would be a good spot. And we got kind of like a little board together and a lot of help, and we went to the spot, and we put up a temporary stage — the first one was really crude — and started inviting people.

“So we pulled it off, and it went real well. We had a really good turnout. All the musicians played for free. There was no admission, but we did have donations, and we did really well.”

Mr. Field, along with Greg Shrader, Richard Shockley, John and Vicky LeCroy, Don and Ruth Coates and Deloy Moore, as well as sound engineers Danny Herrick and Paul Gumerman, all helped pull it off on 15 of Mr. Field’s 38 acres.

Mr. Field said it’s hard to pick out his most memorable years of the festival.

“We have had acts that I never believed would be playing here. There was a singer-songwriter named Norman Blake, who was a favorite of mine. He is one of the best flatpicking guitarists of all time. He played here, and he was an idol of mine. Another folk singer, Melanie, she played here. There have been a lot of memorable years. It’s hard to pick out one or two. It really is,” he said.

The year Melanie, best known for the song “Brand New Key,” played the festival (1996) was John Kidd’s first time in attendance. He was in the band Dover Mountain at the time. Today, he is board chairman of the event’s sponsor, Delaware Friends of Folk, and director of the festival.

“I remember how it rained that day. We set our tents up in what looked like a nice flat area. And after everything was over, after raining all day, we went back, and our air mattresses were floating away,” he said.

Mr. Kidd said Mr. Field’s involvement in the festival has been invaluable.

“He started it and ran it for a number of years, and then, gradually, he got to trust people to do what he always thought he had to do. And so we’ve tried to lighten his burden along the way,” Mr. Kidd said.

“That’s worked pretty well for us and for him and (his wife,) Sonja. They tolerate us, and they trust us. And so, yeah, it’s really worked out pretty well.”

Volunteers start a few weeks before, cleaning up the area and getting ready for the gathering.

“We’ve had a dozen or more sessions, getting things ready. The thing that really helped was, in June, that site was used for Kettle Jam. That group really did a lot to get things ready, and then, we’ve just picked up the sticks and stuff. We’ve done some painting and stuff,” Mr. Kidd said.

“We have volunteers who sometimes look like they’re doing little things, but those little things really add up. It’s not just me doing this.”

They’ve been preparing for this weekend, which will start tonight with the Delmarva Folk Hero Contest, hosted by Dover musician Mike Weyrauch, last year’s Folk Hero Contest winner, starting at 7.

Six acts selected at summer open mics will perform, and the audience vote will determine the new Delmarva Folk Hero. Those artists include Isabel Angela, Bob Barto, Chris Gitcho, Simon & Garfisher, Lenny Smoot and Jamie Tindle.

The prize package includes $100 cash, a $50 music store gift card and $100 to host next year’s Folk Hero Contest finals. The artist will also kick off the festival Saturday at noon.

A set from Newark-based The Honey Badgers will follow at 1, and the afternoon continues with a solo set from Dover’s own Joey Fulkerson at 2.

SandCreek Medicine Show will take the stage at 3, presenting folk, blues, memories and Americana.

The group will include members of Mr. Field’s band SandCreek, though without Mr. Field this year. Mr. Kidd also will perform with SandCreek.

“Everyone has been in the band for at least 20 years, some close to double that. There were a couple of people that were playing with them in the mid-’80s. I’m a relative newcomer, from the late ’90s,” Mr. Kidd said.

“We’re going to do some Lonnie songs. We’re going to do a couple things from people that really influenced everybody, like John Prine and Bill Morrissey, and we’re going to do some songs that Greg Shrader wrote, too.”

Delaware’s own John Flynn will bring his songs and stories to the stage at 5. And at 6, the festival will welcome Stone Jack Ballers, an area acoustic jam band with guitar, saxophone and cajon.

Festival veteran Bob Beach and newcomer Paul Wilkinson will do a set of acoustic blues at 7. The stage at 8 belongs to Poppy Blue Eyes, an American roots-rock band from Stevensville, Maryland.

Closing the 2021 festival at 9 will be ilyAIMY. The Baltimore-based group are three-time winners of the Washington Area Music Association Award for Best Contemporary Folk Group and are known for combining award-winning songwriting and tight male/female harmonies with intricate slap-style guitar work, ukulele and percussion.

At 4, ilyAIMY will also give a talk on famous murder ballads, such as “Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley” and “El Paso.”

A limited number of tickets will be available at the event’s gate. Tickets are $10 for tonight (teen and adult) and $30 for Saturday. Teens Saturday pay $15, and kids 12 and under will be admitted free.

For his part, Mr. Field is happy to see the festival continue.

“When we first started this, some of the folks out here playing, they had their children here that were just walking around here, 4 or 5 years old,” he said.

“And now today, some of them are going on to play music themselves. They were running around, getting in the way, while we’re trying to work on stage. The crowd has always been so appreciative of what we were doing. It’s the camaraderie and just people having fun without having any trouble. And they were always very respectful of my property.

“And we gave them something. The price to come to this festival all these years has been very, very reasonable. When you look at ticket prices, it’s given people a chance to bring their family and not have to pay through the nose to see and hear really good music.”

New Weyrauch album out

Speaking of Mr. Weyrauch, he has let us know that his album, “One Became Four,” is now available.

The album is called “One Became Four” because when he started writing some of the songs in 2013, he was single, and now, he is part of a family of four.

The songs on the album tell a tale of his life’s journey over the better part of the last decade.

“I don’t want to call it a concept album because I’m not Coheed and Cambria, or I’m not Rush. But it does have a concept to it. I do kind of want to tell a story from around 2012 or 2013 to today. It’s kind of a progression from who I was to where I am right now,” he said back in April.

Mr. Weyrauch said that four or five songs on the album are ones that have been written in the last year or so. It is available on almost all digital streaming services.

New Emmanuel song out

And while we are on the topic of new albums, following his return to the music scene with the track, “Don’t Mean That I Don’t Love You,” Ennio Emmanuel — best known around here as the director of Code Purple Kent County — recently released his newest single, “Die Young,” with singer/songwriter Vian Escobar.

“Die Young” was written by Mr. Emmanuel and his friend, Grant Dawson. The pair dove deep in thought about life and the moments we are faced with when embarking on a new journey.

Mr. Escobar, who is based in California, will be traveling to the East Coast to record the music video with Mr. Emmanuel soon. “Die Young” is available on all digital platforms.

Amillion on stage

Continuing on the theme of local artists doing cool things, Dover-based hip hop musician, Amillion the Poet, appeared at the iHeartRadio Music Festival in Las Vegas on Sept. 18.

“I was a late addition but made the most of the experience and represented Delaware in front of 10,000 people,” he said.

He was also invited to perform next year. Additionally, his “1NA” radio show on iHeartRadio reached 200,000 listeners in just seven episodes, plus he started a new tour of Puerto Rico on Tuesday.

Now showing

New this weekend in theaters is “The Sopranos” prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark”; the animated sequel, “The Addams Family 2”; and the horror sequel, “Venom: Let There Be Carnage.”

To share news about your local entertainment group, event or venue, contact Craig Horleman at 741-8224 or chorl@iniusa.org. Follow @CHorlemanDSN on Twitter.