The Falcon Ridge folk music Festival is a music festival held annually on the Long Hill Farm in Hillsdale, New York.
The three day festival features dozens of performer on 3 stages, as well as all day and into-the-night dancing, camping, song swaps, crafts, a workshop stage, a family stage, ethnic foods, recycling, comedy, and the perennial New Artist Showcase.
The Falcon Ridge Folk Festival was created by Howard Randall in 1988 as a festival celebrating acoustic music and singer/songwriters. The festival started as one stage at the base of a ski slope at Catamount in South Egremont, Massachusetts. In 1990, to accomodate the growing festival, it moved to its current home on the Long Hill Farm.
The festival has seen dozens of artists perform each year. Just to name a few performers... Moxy Früvous, Dar Williams, The Nields, John Gorka, Vance Gilbert, Eddie From Ohio, Mary Gauthier, Susan Werner, Tom Landa & The Paperboys, Mark Erelli, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer, Jian Ghomeshi, David Rawlings & Gillian Welch, The Kennedys, and many more.
One of the unique features of the festival is the New Artist Showcase, whose participants are chosen by a committee based on demo tape. These artists are then presented on the main stage of the festival. The audience, through a paper survey, selects their favorite artists. Those artists selected by the audience get to return the following year for the "Most Wanted Song Swap".
Another unique feature is that all of the performances on the main stage and the workshop stage are interpreted in American Sign Language. The festival sports a high amount of accessibility with special reserved seating for the handicapped.
Volunteer support is crucial to the festival. Volunteer staff are thanked with free food and admission to the festival in exchange for their work.
One of the most distinctive voices at the festival doesn't belong to any of the performers. It belongs to the ice vendor and his distinctive call that lets people know that the ice truck is coming around. You can't miss his deep voice call of "AIIIIISSSSS".