The 81st National Folk Festival has announced several more performers who will be sure to enchant and delight attendees in Downtown Salisbury, this Aug. 26-28.

This year’s festival will mark the final year of the event’s residency. In 2023, the festival will transition to the Maryland Folk Festival in Salisbury.  

Some 350 artists — musicians, dancers, storytellers and craftspeople — will take part in the festival, with more than 25 different musical groups performing on four outdoor stages throughout Downtown.

The just-announced artists include:  

•  Eileen Ivers (Bronx, N.Y.) – Irish. 

Raised in the Irish-American community in the Bronx, this musical pioneer and innovator has won over 30 All-Ireland medals and redefined the boundaries of Irish traditional fiddling. 

• Gene Tagaban (Guuy Yaau) (Ruston, Wash.) – Tlingit storyteller, musician and dancer. 

Dancing in a stunning, hand-painted mask and feathered wings, this renowned storyteller and Raven Dancer brings audiences into active participation with timeless Indigenous teachings. 

• Nathan & the Zydeco Cha Chas (Lafayette, La.) – zydeco. 

Led by arguably zydeco accordion’s foremost living practitioner, this rollicking group represents the crème de la crème of the vibrant Black Creole dance music native to Southwest Louisiana. 

Free to the public, the National Folk Festival strives to present the nation’s very finest traditional artists. Music and dance traditions from every part of the country are represented — authentic blues, rockabilly, gospel, jazz, polka, tamburitza, cowboy, bluegrass, klezmer, R&B, old-time, Cajun, rhythm and blues, mariachi, beatbox, breakin’, western swing, honky-tonk, and zydeco, as well as traditional music and dance from Native American, Celtic, Acadian, Middle Eastern, Caribbean, East Asian, Appalachian, Latino, Eastern European, West African and Pacific Island cultures, among others.

To learn more about these artists and their stories, please visit nationalfolkfestival.com.  

Details about performers and demonstrators for the Maryland Traditions Folklife Area & Stage as well as the return of the festival’s Family Area will be announced this summer.