A Message from Carol Obertubbesing | President, Woodstock Folk Festival
Thank you to everyone who attended and/or supported this year’s Woodstock Folk Festival. It was great seeing so many of you enjoying our outstanding performers. We offer a special thank-you to those performers and to all of our volunteers. We thank them for giving us such a memorable day.
Your support that day helps us bring you a special 40th Annual Woodstock Folk Festival on Sunday, July 20, 2025.
For those who could not attend this year — and those who did attend — we hope to have a video sampler available in September. Sign up (right column of every page of our website, woodstockfolkfestival.org) for our email list to learn when it becomes available.
Also, it’s never too late to donate and/or become a Friend (donations of $100-499) or Sponsor (donations of $500 and above). Just use the donate button on the right. If you or someone you know would like to be a Sponsor, email us at info@woodstockfolkfestival.org, and we can work out a package that meets your needs/interests. All donations large and small are very much appreciated.
Please read our Gratitude List below and thank people you know for supporting us. Mark your calendars for Sunday, July 20, 2025. Stay tuned as details become available.
And if you’d like to see this year’s program schedule, visit our Festival post HERE.
The 39th Annual Woodstock Folk Festival Gratitude List ~ “Building Community Through Music”
Thanks to our performers and hosts:
- SongSisters (Amy Dixon-Kolar, Sue Fink, & Patti Shaffner)
- Brittany Jean (Originally from West Chicago, now based in the Pacific Northwest)
- Jeff Talmadge (Austin, Texas-based)
- Paper Birds (Claudia Russell & Bruce Kaplan, CA), (Katie Dahl, & Rich Higdon, WI)
- Los Gallos Band (Chicago-based)
- Annie Capps (Michigan-based performer, “Woody” Award Winner)
- Connie Kaldor (Canadian, Lifetime Achievement Award winner)
- Mark Lyons (Stage Left Cafe Open Mic Co-hosts)
- David Callan (CD Release Party, Stage Left Cafe Open Mic Featured Performer)
- Robinlee Garber (Workshop Leader, Healing Power of Music)
A special thanks to SongSisters for coordinating the All-Sing Finale. We are also grateful to Connie Kaldor’s husband Paul Campagne and their son Gabriel for accompanying her and to Rod Capps and Jason Dennie for accompanying Rod’s wife Annie.
Congratulations to David Callan on his CD release. Thanks to Robinlee Garber for her workshop on “The Healing Power of Music.”
Thanks to those who provided important adjunct services:
A special thanks to Off Square Music (especially co-founder, Keith Johnson) for providing sound at the Festival’s Main Stage – and to Joe Pesz, Rich Prezioso, and Jeremy Simon for sound and video editing of the video sampler. Thanks also to Off Square Music Board Members: Laurel Palma and Kent Fishburn. Thanks also to Andy Andrick and Les Urban for providing sound at the Open Mic Stage. We encourage you to support Off Square open mics and concerts throughout the year – find info at offsquaremusic.org.
We are grateful to our Radio Partners:
- WDCB (Lilli Kuzma)
- WFMT (Marilyn Rea Beyer)
- WNUR (Sue Kessell and Ron Lewis)
Their promotional support is invaluable! By collaborating with WFMT’s “Folkstage,” we were able to bring you Paper Birds.
All three stations have played our artists; Marilyn collaborated with us by presenting Paper Birds and Jeff Talmadge on “Folkstage”; Lilli did a Festival preview with Brittany Jean & SongSisters; and Ron did an interview with Festival President and Producer Carol Obertubbesing.
Thanks to the City of Woodstock and other central Woodstock organizations:
Thanks to the City of Woodstock, the Woodstock Opera House, and Real Woodstock (realwoodstock.com) for their in-kind and promotional support and to the City of Woodstock for their Hotel/Motel Tax Grant for advertising assistance.
Thanks to Mayor Mike Turner, Members of the City Council, City Manager Roscoe Stelford III, and other City staff especially Jane Howie,
Nicole Lewakowski, and Barbara Szul, as well as Daniel Campbell, Betsy Cosgray, Rodney Stickrod, and the rest of the staff at the Opera House and Stage Left Cafe.
We offer our heartfelt gratitude to Tom Mark of Rockford Woodcrafts for creating this year’s “Woody” Award and to Ken West of Material Things (open that day!) for creating this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Thanks to Friends:
Anita Balodis, Martha and Bob Berardino, David Child and Carol Ganzer, Nancy Clark, The Lake County Folk Club, Carol Obertubbesing, Andrea Rhodie, Bruce Rosenberg and Debbie Solomon, Barbara Russell, Louise Ryssmann, Loretta Sawyer, and Jeremy Simon – and to everyone who contributed today and throughout the year.
Thanks to our Woodstock Folk Festival Board Members:
Dorothy Biris, Carol Obertubbesing and Julie Roberts, as well as to all volunteers including: Gary Blankenship, Sonia Calles Mesa, Leslie Cook, Betsy Ducote, Jack Kennedy, Mary Lewis, Steve Mikus, Mary Sherman, Sandra South, Kathy and Patrick Wentz.
Thanks for these organizations for promotional support:
Thanks to Folk Music Notebook, the Northwest Herald, and the Woodstock Independent for promotional support and for the services of the team at Copy Express for their help with design and printing throughout the year.
More thanks:
A very special thanks to Tricia Alexander for her ongoing support including help with this program.
Thanks to those who helped with arrangements and/or housing for performers, including: Yvette Partipilo who housed several performers, Jim Fleming and Karla Rice at Fleming Artists who assisted with arrangements for Connie Kaldor, and Joel Simpson and Two Way Street Coffee House for presenting Brittany Jean in concert.
Thanks to Amy Beth and the late Melodee Ladd for co-founding this Festival in 1986 and to all who have served on its Board over the years.
Thanks to Pitel Brothers for supplying the portapotty.
Thanks to Restaurants/Food/Drink open that day including:
- Expressly Leslie Vegetarian Specialties
- Starbucks
- Corner Square Cafe
- Read Between the Lynes Bookstore/Ice Cream/Candy
- Rocket Fizz Candy
- La Vie En Rose Cafe
- Millie’s Michoacána ice cream & snacks
- El Tepeyac Bakery
- Mary’s Mexican Grill
- Pour House
- D.C. Cobb’s burgers, brews, and more
- Oliver’s
- Cesaroni’s sandwiches
- J&G Pastries
- Paulie’s Italian Bakery & Deli
- MobCraft Beer
- Chop Suey Hut
- Ethereal Confections
Thanks to Other Businesses open that day including:
- Read Between the Lynes Bookstore
- Anime
- Down 2 Earth
- Material Things: supporter of Festival, owned by artist Ken West, who created this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award
- Blue Thistle and Hattie & Myrt
- Curated
- The Peacock Shoppe
- Grove House Market
- The Records Department
- Artisans on Main/Clayworkers Guild houses many artists formerly in Old Court House Art Center
- Woodstock Movie Theater, MD Trains
- GriffoNest Games
- Interiors Anew
- Some businesses in the newly renovated Old Court.
Thanks to these locations for sponsoring other live music events during the weekend:
- Emerson & Oliver Speakeasy
- Gavers Barndance
- Stage Left Cafe
- Winestock
Start planning now to come out for NEXT YEAR’S SPECIAL 40th ANNUAL WOODSTOCK FOLK FESTIVAL | Sunday, July 20, 2025
The Woodstock Folk Festival is an all-volunteer Illinois 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.
A Poem ~ With Thanks to Terry Loncaric from Carol Obertubbesing
Come Dance with Me
The accordion player
ripped into his keys,
setting the fiery pace
for his energetic Tejano band.
The guitar players answered
with robust guitar chords.
A small town folk festival
sprawled across a village
green with beautiful flowers
and historic landmarks.
Dancers rose to the lawn
and sidewalk, unable to
resist the exuberant beats.
A little girl with pigtails
bounced on her chair in
time to the delicious rhythms.
Her lack of inhibition
signaled, I am ready to dance,
I am just waiting for an invitation.
A middle-aged woman, noticing the little girl,
beckoned her, come dance with me.
The older woman, so nimble
and graceful, twirled the girl,
who felt complete delight,
she could keep the feverish beat.
The dance lasted until
the last dizzying note of
the Mexican music on steroids.
Two souls, two generations,
caught up in the pulsing,
other/worldly rhythms.
Strangers no more!
How I envied their freedom, their
shared smiles, their smooth dance moves.
A revelation at the Woodstock Folk Music Festival.
The splintered unity of our rageful world
is easily forgotten in the healing energy of music.
Next time I will not sit on the sidelines.
Instead, I will ride the wave.
~ Terry Loncaric
