GREENSBORO - The 76th National Folk Festival is in full swing in downtown Greensboro.
This year music and dance traditions from every part of the nation are represented and being performed by the country’s very finest traditional artists.
"We are absolutely anticipating bigger crowds than last year,” said Eleanor Schaffner-Mosh with Arts Greensboro. “Last year we had about 102,000 and this year we are thinking, oh my gosh, at least 130,000 maybe even more."
This year's festival gets to take advantage of the brand new stage in LeBauer Park.
“This year once we opened up LeBauer Park in August we realized it would be the perfect venue for one of our smaller stages,” said Schaffner-Mosh.
Stages will be filled with more than 300 different artists and 40 different musical acts
"We have everything from Delta Blues to Zydeco to Quebecois from Canada to East African Rumba to Portuguese puppetry," said Schaffner-Mosh.
One thing that makes the festival unique is there are no headline acts.
"The festival itself is the star,” said Schaffner-Mosh. “We have the absolute best of these traditions."
One big name that organizers said is attracting big crowds is Grandmaster Flash.
"He is a pioneer of hip hop," said Schaffner-Mosh.
Greensboro resident Adelaid Elliot said she's excited to see the legend. "He started basically political raps and scratching so I'm excited to see him because I really like the NWA.”
Other big names include Bill Kirchen and Nathalie Piers.
"On Sunday people can look forward to everything from hula to Tibetan Opera with Chaksampa, you'll see cooks from Vietnam, Southeast Asia, El Salvador and more," said Schaffner-Mosh.
The free festival runs through Sunday.