BUTTE, Montana — The calendar has officially turned to summer, which means the countdown has begun to the Montana Folk Festival, the highlight of a vital tourist season for Butte’s local economy.
In just three weeks, the streets of Uptown will be transformed into Montana’s largest concert stage.
The folk festival promises to be as great as ever, as local businesses were able to raise enough money to match the $100,000 fundraising goal set by the Dennis and Phyllis Washington Foundation.
In total, more than $300,000 has been raised from these community efforts.
But there’s still more to do: Folk Festival is looking for volunteers to help with the set-up, take-down and everything in between.
“It’s about four hours, that’s it,” said George Everett, director of Main Street Uptown Butte. “If you want to volunteer for four hours, you can do things like serving customers behind the scenes, serving, meeting and greeting people, serving beer, that sort of thing.”
When it comes to attracting outsiders to a mining town, nothing works quite like a folk festival, but Butte continues to try.
The Chamber of Commerce is now opening up applications for Tourism Improvement District grants for 2024. This is your chance to get creative and pitch your ideas to help invigorate Butte’s tourism scene.
“TBID funds are essential to supporting events that bring people together in town, uptown and throughout town,” Everett said, “and these events require or encourage people to stay overnight in a hotel, so they’re very important.”
More information on the Tourism Improvement District application can be found on the Chamber’s Facebook page, and a direct link to the application can be found here.
Those interested in volunteering for the Folk Festival can apply on the Montana Folk Festival website, and Everett said all volunteers will receive a free Folk Festival T-shirt as an eternal thank you from organizers.
