Final Group Of Artists Confirmed For American Folk Festival

Organizers of the American Folk Festival on Wednesday announced the final group of artists scheduled to play at the event on the Bangor Waterfront next month.

The artists recently added to the festival are...

De Temps Antan is a Quebecois trio who incorporate accordion, harmonica, guitar, fiddle and bouzouki into their music to create a joyous, energetic presence for their audience. With members who have amassed awards around the world, the foot tapping familiar sound of Quebecois touched with a contemporary style will have you dancing.

Kasi Aysola is a Bharata Natyam dancer and choreographer who trained under Viji Prakash for over ten years. Kasi has performed as a soloist in the U.S. and India and has toured extensively with the Shakti Dance Company across the U.S., Canada & Mexico. He is currently the co-founder/co-artistic director of Prakriti Dance, an innovative professional company that uses the traditional Bharata Natyam movement vocabulary to explore human experience and philosophy.

Mitch Frohman and the Bronx Horns are considered one of the very best Latin Jazz and Salsa bands performing today. Made up of veteran musicians and a riveting rhythm section, The Bronx Horns deliver a tight blend of mambo, cha-cha, salsa, and Latin jazz.

Andre Veloz is a soulful singer/songwriter who encompasses all of the feeling put into her music.  Born in the U.S. Virgin Islands and raised in the Dominican Republic, she began in a garage rock band, but reconnected to her roots in New York City as a teenager. She describes bachata as Dominican Blues with a guitar backbone - romantic music associated with desolation, poverty and a plea for political change.

Kinan Idnawi studied the oud (considered an ancestor of the guitar) with Azerbijani expert Askar Ali Akbar and graduated from the High Music Institute in Damascus in 2008. He has performed worldwide at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris, La Scala in Milan and at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and has played with the Qatar Philarmonic.

The Red Trouser Show began as two boys who became friends in the first grade. David Graham and Tobin Renwick learned how to juggle and unicycle, and began performing in the “Circus Smirkus” summer program. After high school, they continued performing and went on to create their own show complete with juggling, acrobatics, comedy and telltale red pants. The two have traveled the globe, gracing stages and streets at Six Flags, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Comedy Festival in Australia, and the International Circus in Karachi, Pakistan.

Sleepy LaBeef has perfomed Rockabilly for half a century of his life, with success on the music charts beginning in the 1960s and as recently as 2000. Sleepy’s live shows are of the utmost importance to him and he continues to perform more than 200 times a year, usually with younger musicians struggling to keep up! He has shared stages with Elvis Presley, George Jones, Roy Orbison and Wanda Jackson and has included many other famous talents in his band.

The Asociacion Carnavalesca de Massachusetts is a traveling Dominican Carnival. Traditionally Carnival is celebrated in the Dominican Republic in February, but this group, led by Stelvyn Mirabal creates the Carnival atmosphere at events all year long. About thirty performers don elaborate masks and costumes as ambassadors of Dominican culture. The “diablos cojuelos” or limping devils of the group deliver high energy dances and music that brings crowds to their feet.

The American Folk Festival is scheduled for August 28th, 29th, and 30th on the Bangor Waterfront.

For a complete list of performers visit the festival's official website.