Successful Folk Festival Winds Down in Butte

"We all come from different cultures," Virginia Gospel artist Cora Harvey Armstrong preached from the main stage at the Original Mineyard in Butte during the final day of the 2002 Montana Folk Festival in Butte on Sunday. "But we were all created by the one God, who is a God of diversity" drawing cheers from young and old alike under a warm afternoon in the Mining City, "and our God uses every Crayon in the box."

God may use Crayons but performers and vendors used musical instruments and artisan tools which were on display over the three day festival which took over an approximately 10-block area in the heart of Uptown Butte.  It was not only gospel music fans enjoyed, but everything from Western Swing, Zydeco, and Irish Celtic to native songs of our region's Assiniboine-Cree Tribes and songs written and sung in an almost extinct Ladino language that rung throughout the Uptown during the festival.  Attendees were treated to the wide availability of different foods and the pleasant aroma of funnel cake, noodles, burgers, sausages and more which were sold from various booths and trailers as well as a marketplace where native art and goods were up for sale.

Final attendance were not immediately availble but festival workers said that they were very thankful for the many generous donations made that will keep the Folk Festival in Butte and back again next Summer.  The final performances of the festival will be Sunday evening.