Hundreds of performers, presenters, booking agents, radio programmers and others engaged in performing and promoting folk and acoustic music in the Western United States will gather in Eugene, Oregon, Oct.20-23, for the eighth annual Folk Alliance Region-West (FAR-West) Conference. The event will feature lots of acoustic music, networking, music business education, an exhibit hall … and very little sleep.

This year’s FAR-West Conference will feature a number of firsts. It is being held in collaboration with the Shedd Institute for the Arts, a concert presenter and teaching facility, and its daytime activities, exhibit hall, Susanne Millsaps Memorial Coffeehouse (which becomes a daytime event) and official showcases in the evening will take place at Shedd. The FAR-West Conference follows ARTS Northwest’s annual booking conference, and its attendees have been invited to attend some FAR-West events. There will be a special Thursday night concert at which folk DJs choose their favorite artists. Tom May will be recording 15 artists – each doing one song live – for three broadcasts of his syndicated radio show, River City Folk. More of the workshops will be designed as interactive panels to engage people in discussions rather than just listening to lectures. And there will be new songwriting collaborations on site.

Booking gigs is the primary objective of some musicians and singer-songwriters who attend these annual conferences, while many presenters and folk DJs come primarily to scout out new artists and those who they have not previously heard and seen in live performance. However, the conference experience is much more than that; it’s really about forging connections and building community.

John McCutcheon (Photo: Walter Hansen)

John McCutcheon, one of America’s most revered folksinger-songwriters, a multi-instrumentalist who plays a dozen different traditional instruments (including the hammered dulcimer), a social activist, and a founder and current president of Local 1000, the traveling folksingers’ local of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM), will deliver a keynote address during the event’s Saturday afternoon Best of the West Awards luncheon.

Official Showcase artists this year, each of whom will have 25-minute sets on either Friday or Saturday night, were selected from among hundreds of applicants. The showcases will extend from 7-10 p.m. each evening. Showcasing on Friday night will be DonnaLynn, Sourdough Slim and Robert Armstrong, Eagle Park Slim, Larry Murante, the Lovebirds, and Otter Creek. Saturday evening’s Official Showcase artists include SONiA of Disappear Fear, Aireene Espiritu, Eric Schwartz, Teresa Tudury, Christopher Smith, and Joe and Vickie Price

Following the official showcases, from 10:30 p.m. to 2:30 a.m., there will be late night guerilla showcases and jam sessions arranged by conference attendees and held in their rooms at the Eugene Downtown Hilton, the host hotel. In addition, songwriting collaborations and an AFM Local 1000 Showcase-free Zone are featured on Saturday overnight. Some private guerilla showcases also are slated for Thursday overnight at the Hilton, following a DJs’ Choice concert at the Shedd Recital Hall.

During the daytime hours, conference-goers can choose from among more than a dozen workshops and panel discussions, a number of which will include music and business, while several will be punctuated with musical performances. This year’s workshops and interactive panel discussions include Where the Gigs Are, Current Issues in Radio, Writing Instrumental Music, Presenters’ Issues, 20 Questions, Teaching Music, Middle Eastern Music, Presenting Yourself to Radio and Venues, Folklore, Traditional Music as a Tool in Songwriting, Performers’ First Aid, Performing Rights, Free Services and Something to Talk About.

The annual “Best of the West” Awards, recognizing one performer and one non-performer or couple who have established themselves as true leaders through their talents and efforts on behalf of the community over a period of time, will be presented during a luncheon on Saturday. This year’s honorees are Laurie Lewis (Performer Award) and Vivian and Paul Williams (Ambassador Award).

A free FAR-West After-Conference Celebration is slated for Sunday, from 2-10 p.m., at Tsunami Books in Eugene. It will feature hour-long sets of music by Joanne Rand, David Rogers, Jim Page, Beth Wood, Kathy Marshal (with Laura Golden), Chico Schwall and David Nigel Lloyd and David Helfand.

As its name implies, FAR-West is part of the larger Folk Alliance International, an association that aims to foster and promote multicultural, traditional and contemporary folk music, while strengthening and advancing organizational and individual initiatives in folk music and dance through education, networking, advocacy, and professional and field development. The 24th Annual International Folk Alliance Conference is slated for February 22-26, 2012 in Memphis, Tennessee.

For more information, visit www.far-west.org.