Woody Guthrie Folk Festival

The Woody Guthrie Folk Festival is held annually in mid-July to commemorate the life and music of Woody Guthrie. The festival is held on the weekend closest to July 14 - the date of Guthrie’s birth - in Guthrie’s hometown of Okemah, Oklahoma. Daytime main stage performances are held inside at the Brick Street Cafe and the Crystal Theater. Evening main stage performances are held outdoors at the Pastures of Plenty. The festival is planned and implemented annually by the Woody Guthrie Coalition, a non-profit corporation, whose goal is simply to ensure Guthrie’s musical legacy. The event is made possible in part from a grant from the Oklahoma Arts Council. Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, Woody Guthrie’s younger sister, is the festival’s perennial guest of honor.
The festival, which over the years has morphed into being called "WoodyFest" by attendees, was founded in 1998 and the inaugural festival included performances by Guthrie’s son Arlo Guthrie as well as British folk-punk-rock artist Billy Bragg. For the festival’s founding, the Woody Guthrie Coalition commissioned a local Creek Indian sculptor to cast a full-body bronze statue of Guthrie and his guitar, complete with the guitar’s well-known inscription: "This machine kills fascists". The statue, sculpted by artist Dan Brook, stands along Okemah’s main street - named Broadway - in the heart of downtown Okemah.
The Woody Guthrie Coalition wanted the Guthrie family’s approval before establishing the festival. Arlo Guthrie and his sister, Nora, felt strongly that their father would want the festival accessible to all and stipulated that they would sanction the festival if it were free. The Coalition complied and festival attendees have never been charged a fee to attend. To keep expenses at a minimum artists donate their time, although the Coalition pays for the artists’ transportation and lodging. According to Joel Rafael, "It has turned into a wonderful thing, because people are not motivated to be on it for the wrong reasons obviously.
For more information about the history of WoodyFest, see the article about the festival in Wikipedia.