NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The National Council for the Traditional Arts
(NCTA) announced today with Mayor Karl Dean and the Compass Records
Group that Labor Day weekend, September 2-4, 2011, has been chosen as
the date for the 73rd National Folk Festival.

One of the nation’s largest and most prestigious celebrations of
traditional music and culture, the National Folk Festival will be
presented in downtown Nashville from 2011 - 2013, with the final year
in Nashville marking the Festival’s 75th anniversary. Festival
planners are currently working with city and state officials to
determine the downtown site for the event, which will be announced in
the near future.

“You can’t have too much live music in Music City,” Dean said. “The
National Folk Festival is going to be a great addition to the music
festivals already held in Nashville. It’s a chance to display not
only the traditional cultures and art of our city, but also the
growing diversity of musical genres that call Nashville home.”

The National Folk Festival is a free-to-the public event and is
expected to draw upwards of 100,000 people to Nashville bringing an
economic benefit of $10-15 million to the city.  Festival planners
selected Labor Day weekend with the goal of attracting holiday
travelers from major metropolitan areas surrounding Nashville.

“What better place to celebrate the richness and variety of American
culture than in Nashville, a vibrant, ascendant city in the heart of
our nation,” said NCTA Executive Director Julia Olin.

“Particularly in these economic times and as we recover from the
flood, a free event with typical attendance of 100,000 to 180,000 is
great for our hospitality industry, our community and tremendous
exposure for sponsoring businesses and organizations,” said Ralph
Schulz, President of the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce.

The National Folk Festival effort in Nashville will involve the
entire community and bring together many diverse groups to work
toward the common goal of building the event. The festival will shine
a light not only on the traditional roots of music that has made
Middle Tennessee world famous, but also on the musical and cultural
traditions of immigrant groups new to Nashville and the region, with
the goal of reflecting the increasingly multi-cultural character of
the city, state and nation.

“The National Folk Festival is a perfect opportunity to show
Nashville as the diverse, international community, economically and
culturally, that it has become,” said Consul-General of Japan Hiroshi
Sato.

Nashville is the Host City for the 73rd, 74th and 75th National Folk
Festivals produced by the National Council for the Traditional Arts
(NCTA), the organization which created the festival in 1934, in
partnership with Nashville’s local National Folk Festival group, the
Metropolitan Government of Nashville, the Community Foundation, the
Nashville Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Nashville Chamber of
Commerce and the Compass Records Group. A fundraising effort to
support the festival is underway and both corporate and private
sponsorship are being sought.

For more details, visit www.NashvilleNFF.org,
www.nationalfolkfestival.com, send an email to
friendsofthefestival@NashvilleNFF.org or call the Compass Records
Group at (615) 320-7672.