For years, September in downtown Salisbury was synonymous with the Maryland Folk Festival. This year, the city is trying something new.
On Sept. 18, Salisbury will host its first Turn Up the Volume, an expanded Third Friday featuring five hours of live music, local performers, vendors and family activities throughout downtown.
“We know this is not a replacement for the Maryland Folk Festival,” Salisbury's Events and Culture Manager Caroline O’Hare said. “This is sort of an expanded, giant Third Friday that we hope will bring a ton of folks to downtown.”
The event will run from 4 to 9 p.m., with 10 performing groups across two stages, along with buskers and street performers. Food and craft vendors will also participate, and visitors can use Salisbury’s TAPS program to carry alcoholic beverages from participating businesses through designated downtown areas.
The event follows the end of the Maryland Folk Festival after sponsorship and grant funding fell short. But city officials say lessons from producing the festival will continue to shape Salisbury’s arts programming.
“The first thing I learned is that if there is a desire for something, the community comes together,” O’Hare said, recalling hundreds of residents attending the festival’s first volunteer orientation.
That experience also highlighted the amount of artistic talent already on the Eastern Shore, something O’Hare said the city plans to continue showcasing.
Rather than concentrating resources into one major weekend, Director of Arts, Business and Culture Scott Roberts said Salisbury is now looking to create more opportunities throughout the calendar.
“We have the infrastructure and we have the team to be able to spread this out,” Roberts said.
Turn Up the Volume takes place Sept. 18 from 4 to 9 p.m. in downtown Salisbury.