6 acts to see at Lowell Folk Festival (2024)

Didn’t snag tickets to the sold-out music festival happening in Newport this weekend? Fear not. There’s another stellar New England folk fest running July 26-28. At Lowell Folk Festival, admission is free, the line-up is solid, the cultures diverse, and you can eat your way from Middle Eastern cuisine to Burmese fare.

I love Lowell Folk because there’s really no other area fest doing what this one does. Now in its 37th year, you might see street performances, honkey tonk guitar, or Kathak dancing. The food offerings here are the same vibe. No hotdogs or popcorn. Instead, Brazilian Coxinha de Frango, Armenian lahmajoun, Polish kielbasa and Jamaican rum cake.

It’s the type of fest that opens eyes. Go for the blues and barbecue ribs, stay for the Bolivian dancers, mariachi tunes and Filipino inihaw na manok. This year’s three-day schedule is jam-packed. Here are six must-see acts.

The Neville Brothers. The Meters. The Wild Tchoupitoulas. And, more recently, the Wild Southern Brotherhood. The 75-year-old is a legend.

The youngest of the original four Neville Brothers and the last one performing, the Grammy-winning percussionist/vocalist has toured with the Rolling Stones; played on Bob Dylan’s underrated “Oh Mercy” (1989); was on “The Last Waltz” tour with Don Was, Warren Haynes and others in 2022; won a Lifetime Achievement Grammy in 2018 with The Meters; and, among a litany of other verified-cool factors, rocked the 2024 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival a few months back. Stand at the feet of a funkified icon.

Cyril Neville plays at 8:45 p.m. at the Dance Pavilion on Saturday, July 27. On Sunday, July 28, he plays at 2 p.m. on Market Street Stage and 5:15 p.m. at Boarding House Park.

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Bring your dancing shoes. With vibes of zydeco, bluegrass and lively Irish pub session, the Swanky Kitchen Band cooks up some Cayman Islands traditional kitchen dance music. Formed in 2003, this nine-piece band is “on a quest to revive the traditional music of the Cayman Islands” as “the last of the Caymanian kitchen bands,” according to fest billing.

Because Caymanians traditionally lived in easily burned thatched-roof homes, kitchens were often open-air or semi-enclosed. “Cooking often became a community-wide event… kitchen tools, most notably a grater, became the driving percussive foundation paired with cowskin or goatskin drums,” the festival website reads.

The genre’s violin-centric roots “can be traced back to the Irish and Celtic fiddling traditions brought to the Cayman Islands by its earliest permanent settlers,” the band explains on its website. “But the driving pulse of the music comes from the vibrant rhythms brought across” by enslaved peoples from Africa.

Currently on an East Coast tour that brings them to the Library of Congress after Lowell, the Swanky Kitchen Band is a full-on party.

The Swanky Kitchen Band plays at noon at Boarding House Park and 6:15 p.m. on the Market Street Stage on Saturday, July 27. On Sunday, July 28, the group performs at 2 p.m. on the Market Street Stage and 3:45 p.m. at the Dance Pavilion.

Based in Jacksonville, Florida, Native Pride Dancers bills itself as a “high-energy show featuring an innovative blend of modern and traditional Native American dance styles.” “Our performers’ regalia are adorned with vivid assortments of brightly-colored ribbons, feathers, beads and furs — all of which honor our nations’ elders and the legacy of our traditional arts. Our dance is contemporary, yet primal, as we use every muscle and breath to express our rich, cultural heritage.”

The group, which has performed at the Kennedy Center, is led by Larry Yazzie, a two-time World Champion Fancy Dancer, Men’s Northern Traditional dancer and Eagle Dancer who has performed from Japan to Guatemala, according to the group’s website.

Yazzie grew up on the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama, Iowa. He’ll be joined in Lowell by Tia Roberts, presenting a fancy shawl dance, and grass dancer Dom Watson, according to the event billing.

The trio performs on Saturday, July 27, at 12:15 p.m. at Saint Anne’s Churchyard and at Market Street Stage 12:15 p.m. On Sunday, July 28, they perform at 1 p.m. on Market Street Stage and at Saint Anne’s Churchyard at 4 p.m.

Veronica Robles has made a name for herself as a voice of mariachi in Boston. You may have heard her sing the national anthem at a Celtics game, seen her perform locally like the Cambridge River Arts Festival, or watched her march with Little Amal last September. She also performed in WBUR’s “Ones to Watch: Boston’s Emerging Artists” in 2022. At the time, WBUR noted that as the founder of the first female mariachi band in the city, Robles is a “cultural icon for Latinos in Boston and an ambassador for the power of arts and culture to bring community together.”

She is also the co-founder and director of the Boston-based Veronica Robles Cultural Center with a mission “to promote Latin American arts and cultures as an engine for stronger communities and economic growth.” Robles always brings spirit and passion to live performances. You’ll likely see her bold colors, maybe canary yellow or fire engine red, with singing, trumpets and violins.

Veronica Robles Mariachi has two street performances on Sunday, July 28, at 12:30 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. at Central & Merrimack.

Fans of Mavis Staples, take note: You won’t want to miss Annie & the Caldwell Singers. This powerhouse gospel group out of Mississippi will have you moving, clapping and feeling all the feels with its old-school soul.

Annie Caldwell was 11 years old when she and her brothers started the Staples Jr. Singers, in honor of Pops and Mavis Staples’ group, according to the festival billing. In 2022, David Byrne’s Luaka Bop label reissued the Staples Jr. Singers album “When Do We Get Paid.”

These days, Annie, her husband Joe and their five grown children make up Annie & the Caldwells Singers. Annie and her daughters Anora, Anjessica and Deborah bring true emotion into the vocals.

Annie & the Caldwell Singers perform on Saturday, July 27, at 2:05 p.m. at Boarding House Park, 4:15 p.m. at Saint Anne’s Churchyard and 7:15 p.m. on the Market Street Stage. The group performs on Sunday, July 28, at noon at Boarding House Park.

The group describes itself as “a community-based cultural and educational organization dedicated to developing and promoting the Korean performing arts.” They’ll perform traditional pungmul and samulnori at Lowell Folk Festival.

According to the festival billing, “the pageantry and energy of a harvest festival in rural Korea comes together in the flying footwork, brilliantly colored dress, and joyful percussion of pungmul.” Samulnori is a genre born out of pungmul in the 1970s, bringing traditional “farmers’ music” indoors.

I’ll be honest here — and maybe you’re in the same boat— and say I truly don’t know much about these two traditions at all, and that’s exactly why I’m excited to see this group perform. That’s the point of a folk fest like this. The heart of Lowell Folk is learning new folk cultures, appreciating traditions you may not have grown up with, opening your mind and eyes to something totally new to you.

Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago performs on Saturday, July 27 at 1:15 p.m. at Saint Anne’s Churchyard and 4:15 p.m. at Market Street Stage. The group performs on Sunday, July 28, on the Market Street Stage at 1 p.m. with a street performance at 2:30 p.m. at Central & Merrimack.