Portland Folk Festival 2023

The Portland Folk Festival began as a one-day event in 2018 at McMenamin's White Eagle put on by local folk duo Fox and Bones. The first event was so successful that the following year it was moved to The Mission Theater to provide more space and a second day. In 2020 it was moved to the Crystal Ballroom where the event resides now. This year's three-day event was the first since the pandemic. 

Saturday night's line-up included eight artists of various sub-genres of folk. 

Local artist Laryssa Birdseye started the night with her more pop-driven sound. She began with a brief story of having made playing the Crystal Ballroom a goal when she first moved to Portland; her set had another few short stories about the music in which she covered the topics she writes about. The crowd was filled with side conversations throughout the first three artist's sets, but the chatter during this first set was so loud that audience members who were not participating in these side conversations could not make out most of her lyrics. 

The Singer and The Songwriter traveled from Portland to play their set at the festival. Their set was all vocals accompanied by an acoustic guitar. There was still quite a bit of talking in the crowd while they played, but listeners could still tell that they had a tight set with a smooth flow. 

Dead Lee came onto the stage in true folk fashion: two guitars, a kick drum, and a harmonica. Their set was most true to the folk genre out of all the artists on the bill. They paused halfway through their set to thank the audience and their crew. Toward the end of their set, the crowd began to quiet down and pay more attention to the artists on stage. 

Adrian + Meredith came with their backing band from Nashville to play stomp n holler. Their songs were short, fast, and high-energy. They asked for a lot of audience participation. Toward the end of their set, they pulled up almost all the singers from the other bands who were playing. 

Lo Steele had a jazzy sound with a vocal style that was undoubtedly inspired by Amy Winehouse. While she played a strong set that was pretty well received her music seemed out of place with the theme of the festival. 

Fox and Bone put on a very high-energy set with an early 2000 country sound. They are a duo who played with a backing band; every person on stage are strong entertainers. The guitarist played behind his head and duck walked through the set. Throughout their set, they thanked the crowd and crew several times for helping make the festival happen. The crow was actively paying attention from their set to the end of the headliner's set. 

Haley Johnsen played an admittedly "not very folky" set and leaned more into an ambient, high-energy pop. She mixed a couple of acoustic songs into the middle of her set that held up to the title of folk. While her set was mostly not folk it was well received. She spoke a lot of in-between songs to tell the crowd what her music is about; the themes of most of her songs were mental health related. 

The festival headliner Rayland Baxter rearranged the stage and dumped the contents of his pockets onto a table with a bottle of wine, feet away from the Crystal Ballroom's "No Drinks on Stage" signs. He paid little to no attention to the crowd as he got situated on stage, even setting his phone up towards the back to record his set. He was there to play his music; even commenting on not talking to the crowd so he could play longer. Baxter played a couple of songs solo, giving his band a short break to come back and play even better than the first half of the set. 

Saturday night of the Portland Folk Festival began a little rocky with a noisy crowd but finished strong with a headliner who knows exactly how to grab and hold the attention of a crowd. The sound was far too loud all night, it seemed like the sound tech was trying to cover their mistakes with volume. As an audience member, the biggest complaints were the sound peaking at 95 decibels and other audience members lacking respect for the artists on stage.