Our Mission
The Portland Folk Festival is dedicated to the preservation and celebration of the world's folk and traditional music, and to the vibrant community, forward-thinking quality of life, and spectacular natural beauty of our treasured home of Portland. With one foot firmly rooted in preserving and celebrating the lessons of the past, and one in working toward a sustainable future, we are dedicated to the study, evolution, expression and celebration of the music of the people.
About Us
The Portland Folk Festival will offer a rich and diverse sampling of music, culture, art, craft, food and thought. The festival aims to connect artists and encourage exploration and collaboration by curating with a mind toward upholding as well as redefining our ideas of the nature of folk music. Each year the Portland Folk Festival will contribute to several local non-profit organizations dedicated to arts education, sustainability and food safety, and furthering Portland as an international hub of community-minded innovation.
About the Founders:
Slim Moon, Development Director:
Slim Moon is the founder of the legendary indie label Kill Rock Stars. Over the years he has worked in music in nearly every way imaginable - musician, record label owner, producer, roadie, booking agent, retailer, manager, festival organizer. Along the way, he has helped nurture the careers of dozens of bands and solo artists including Elliott Smith, Sleater-Kinney, The Decemberists, and Thao Nguyen. Raised in the Rocky Mountains of Montana, folk music is Slim's first and most enduring musical love.
Amanda Stark, Managing Director:
Amanda Stark was immersed in politics and folk music from an early age. Growing up in Canada, her interest in writers like Steinbeck and Woody Guthrie and the beat poets, drew her to the spoken word and folk movement in the United States in the early nineties. She spent several years touring internationally in the political punk folk band, Stark Raving Chandler, and went on to work as booking agent, promoter, publicist and artist manager. Amanda has worked with many exceptional artists, including Dan Bern, The Be Good Tanyas, Geoff Berner and Bitch and Animal. With a great appreciation for the wonderful festivals she has attended, and a grass roots approach to music business, Amanda has brought a long held dream of building a folk festival to her adopted home of Portland, Oregon.
Chantelle Hylton Simmons, Artistic Director:
The daughter of a jazz singer, Chantelle was raised on live music. While developing a career in news journalism in the spring of 2000 in Portland Oregon, she threw a party at the Medicine Hat Gallery, and was hired on the spot to take over the booking. Over the next 7 years in Portland she booked a show every night in almost a dozen music venues. In 2005 she started her own concert promotion company, Blackbird Presents, and with partner Mike McGonigal founded the Halleluwah Festival of Enthused Arts. In spring of 2007 while on vacation in New York City, she was offered the Senior Talent Buyer position at Knitting Factory, and spent almost 3 years in NYC until she missed Portland too much to stay away. She still books Brooklyn's Northside Festival (350+ bands over 4 days in more than 30 music venues), but can now do so from the 6 acres she and her family are developing into an organic farm and retreat space in Woodland, Washington.
