The Folk Festival starts tonight down at 6:30 p.m. at Brown’s Island and Tredegar. My experience is if you don’t like crowds tonight is the night to go. Everyone seems to wait until Saturday or Sunday and then you have lines and long walks from the parking areas. Friday night, everything is easier, especially right at 6:30.

Don’t forget to check out the schedule of all of the great performers they have lined up for tonight, Saturday and Sunday.

New this year, you can actually hear the music of the performers online and decide who you like best. With so many stages and so many performers, this is going to be key for me in making sure I’ll get to the performances I like most.

So far, I’m impressed with the Holmes Brothers, Henry Butler and Vishten. I only wish they had sound samples for all of the performers.