HYDE PARK — The University of Chicago Folk Festival is cutting all Sunday events this year.
The 56th annual folk festival starts Friday with performances at Mandel Hall, 1131 E. 57th St., on Friday and Saturday nights and music and dance workshops all day across campus on both days.
Unlike past years, the festival will close down after Saturday evenings’ show and eliminate all Sunday events.
“It was our lowest attendance day and we figured we would take it off to get our rhythm with the first two days,” said Collin Lapinsky, president of the University of Chicago Folklore Society, which organizes the festival.
He said the festival organizers decided to end on Saturday because it was difficult to get volunteers on Sunday, attendance was low and it didn’t justify the costs of a third day of bands and renting space for them to perform.
“I think we did focus on making the two days better than what we would have done with three days,” Lapinsky said.
He said he was excited to have gotten Romanian cimbalom player Nicolae Feraru for the fest this year on Saturday, who plays an obscure version of a hammer dulcimer largely unknown outside of Eastern Europe and Russia.
Lapinsky said he was also excited about the “obscure tunes” the Fat Babies bring the festival with their performance on Friday.
He said he expected the festival could go back to three days in the future.
A full schedule of performances and workshops is available online at uofcfolk.org.
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