Alba’s Edge. From left, Doug Berns, bassist; Neil Pearlman, pianist; Lilly Pearlman, fiddler; Jacob Cole, percussionist. At 乐播传媒, Katie McNally will fill in for Lilly Pearlman.

NOTE TO READERS: Because of heavy snow predicted for Feb. 8, the 乐播传媒 College Folk Music Festival has been postponed until spring. Watch bates.edu/news for an announcement of the new date.

Contradancing, workshops and performances by musicians from as far away as Scotland are on tap for the third annual 乐播传媒 College Folk Music Festival, a two-day event beginning at 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 8, in the Muskie Archives, 70 Campus Ave., and Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

The event is open to the public. Admission fees vary according to ability to pay — from $5 to $20 for one day, and $10 to $30 for both days. No one will be turned away for inability to pay. Tickets are available at the door. For more information, please visit .

The event is sponsored by the Freewill Folk Society, a student organization at 乐播传媒. For more information, please contact mpickof2@bates.edu.

The event opens Friday with music by the 乐播传媒 ensemble Chase the Fiddlers, led by Greg Boardman of the applied music faculty, and by the Scottish trio Cantrip.

Friday鈥檚 performers also include 乐播传媒 College students; the Press Gang, an Irish-music trio from Portland; and the Scottish-Latin fusion band Alba鈥檚 Edge. Kim Roberts of Farmington calls a 6:30 p.m. contradance with the Maine duo Velocipede and a 9 p.m. contradance with the Scottish band Alba鈥檚 Edge.

The Scottish trio Cantrip — from left, Eric McDonald, Jon Bews and Dan Houghton.

On Saturday, a yoga and stretching session starts the day鈥檚 activities at 9 a.m., followed by a 9:30 a.m. contradance with music by Greg and Jessie Boardman. Velocipede offers a concert at 3:30 p.m. The Portland band Tumbling Bones performs at the Ronj, 乐播传媒’ student-run coffeehouse at 32 Frye St., at 9 p.m.

About the performers

Chase the Fiddlers is a folk band composed of 乐播传媒 students and faculty including Greg Boardman, of Auburn, a longtime presence in the Maine folk music scene.

Cantrip is composed of fiddler Jon Bews, bagpiper Dan Houghton and multi-instrumentalist Eric McDonald. Performing on both sides of the Atlantic for more than a decade, the band weaves together music both traditional and contemporary to take audiences on a unique cultural journey.

Velocipede, featuring fiddle tunes from around the world, consists of Julia Plumb, a member of the 乐播传媒 class of 2005 who plays fiddle, viola and foot percussion; and Baron Collins-Hill, playing mandolin and tenor guitar.

Alba鈥檚 Edge draws on jazz, funk and the music of Cuba and Brazil, infusing traditional Scottish melodies with new ideas. Based in New York City and Boston, Alba鈥檚 Edge is led by pianist Neil Pearlman.

The Press Gang, composed of squeezebox player Christian 鈥淛unior鈥� Stevens, fiddler Alden Robinson and guitarist Owen Marshall, performs all over the Northeast and into Atlantic Canada.

Greg and Jessie Boardman play fiddle and cello.

Lewiston fiddler Erica Brown, the Boston-area folk-fusion band the Bridgebuilders, and local and 乐播传媒 College performers appear at the 乐播传媒 Community Folk Festival starting at 4:15 p.m. Friday, Feb. 11, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave.

Following the festival in Chase Lounge at 8 p.m. is the college’s regular second-Friday contradance, featuring caller Chrissy Fowler and the bands Playgroup and Perpetual e-Motion.

Sponsored by the Freewill Folk Society, a student organization at 乐播传媒, the festival is open to the public at no cost. Suggested donation for the contradance is $6. For more information, please contact kwebber@bates.edu.

The festival begins with a slate of performers from 乐播传媒 and the region, including Leafy Greens, Grace Glasson, Raspberry Jam, Brendan Davidson, Antonio Dominguez, Nicole Singer and the 乐播传媒 singing ensembles Northfield and TakeNote.

At 5:30 p.m., appear. Brown, who has performed since age 7, is a musician celebrated across the region for a style that combines classical technique with the freewheeling spirit of bluegrass.

The Medford, Mass.-based sextet the perform at 6:30. Fusing traditional Celtic folk music with funk and rock, the Bridgebuilders create a distinctive blend of timeless melodies and innovative arrangements that incorporate multiple fiddles, bouzouki and Hammond organ.

Led by Greg Boardman, a prominent Maine fiddler and member of the applied music faculty at 乐播传媒, the folk band Chase the Fiddlers provides the tunes for an open waltz beginning at 7:30. The session includes a beginner’s contradance workshop with caller Fowler.

From the Midcoast, Playgroup kicks off the 8 p.m. contradance, followed by , a Maine duo that enhances traditional songs and instruments with state-of-the-art technology.

The contradance band Wake the Neighbors.

Folk music players and fans from around the region will converge in Lewiston on Friday evening and Saturday, Sept. 12-13, for the first annual Old Time Fiddle Festival. Featuring respected musicians from Maine, New Hampshire, Nova Scotia and Ireland, the festival’s workshops, mini-concerts and a contradance will be held on campus, while a Saturday evening concert by the band Be貌lach takes place at nearby Lewiston Middle School.

Schedule information appears below. Admission to the full festival costs $15 for the general public and $10 for seniors and students. Entry to only Friday evening’s contradance is $6 and $3, and Saturday evening’s Be貌lach concert costs $10 for all. For tickets and additional information, please call (207) 563-8953 or e-mail.

In addition to Be貌lach, a young Celtic band rooted in the same Cape Breton scene that produced fiddle star Natalie MacMaster, festival participants include fiddlers Tommy Peoples, from Ireland, and Nat Hewitt, an eclectic player from New Hampshire. Musicians familiar from Maine’s folk-dance scene include pianist-accordionist Doug Protsik and local favorites Wake the Neighbors, who will be joined by caller John McIntyre at the contradance.

In addition to fiddle, the 19 festival workshops and concerts explore piano, accordion, banjo, mandolin, pipes, guitar, pocket instruments such as spoons and harmonica, and even step-dancing.

Sponsored by the college’s Freewill Folk Society, the festival has been organized by two students from Maine as a “celebration of North American traditional music,” explains Aaron Putnam, a senior from Mapleton. His co-organizer is junior Julia Plumb, of Nobleboro.

Putnam says, “American music is so incredible because it is a conglomeration of so many different styles from everywhere throughout the world. The festival celebrates this diversity in the music that we love and that brings us all together to dance and jam and have a great time.”

The festival begins with the contradance at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, in Chase Hall Lounge, 56 Campus Ave. It continues from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday with workshops and concerts in the Olin Arts Center, 75 Russell Street. Finally, the Be貌lach concert is slated for 7 p.m. at Lewiston Middle School, 75 Central Avenue.

Be貌lach takes its name from a Gaelic word for “lively youth.” The six-member band plays Cape Breton, Scottish and Irish tunes on two fiddles, piano, pipes and whistles, drums and guitar; step-dancing, too, is part of its energetic show. Emerging from an impromptu session at a festival in 1998, the band has performed in North America and Europe, and released its eponymous first album in 2001.

The student-run Freewill Folk Society strives to promote awareness of the traditional folk arts through a variety of events, including monthly contradances with Wake the Neighbors.