BALLSTON SPA —The annual GottaGetGon Folk festival will be turning 38 this year, and, in all that time, the basic idea behind it hasn’t changed much.

Each year, the Memorial Day weekend festival has remained a small, informal gathering of about 150 to 200 musicians and music fans, with concerts, workshops and sing-alongs. Although a few events have been added in recent years, such as the drum circle and swing gathering, this year’s festival, beginning on Friday, and running through Sunday, will stick with the basic schedule outlined by past festivals.

“We’re not trying anything really new,” said Vicki Kelsey, a former president of the Pickin’ and Singin’ Gatherin’, the local participatory folk music organization that puts on the festival. “It’s something that seems to work. So we try to stick mostly to it.”

Kelsey, along with her husband, William Kelsey, has been at nearly every GottaGetGon Festival since it was founded in 1970. According to Kelsey, the festival is family-oriented, with some having attended the festival for three generations. The festival itself has become “sort of an extended family.”

“There are kids that have all grown up together, and meet [at the festival] like they’re all cousins or something,” Kelsey said. “My children, even when they were teenagers, wanted to come.”

Camping out

The festival, which takes place at the Saratoga County Fairgrounds, is set up like a giant camping trip, where visitors can either camp on the fairgrounds for the weekend or opt for a day pass. Meals are cooked on site; the festival actually kicks off with a potluck dinner at 7 p.m. Friday, with a “new folks” concert at 8 p.m. featuring young artists Jean Rohe, Hannah Rosen and the band Citizen Genest.

“[The potluck dinner] includes all the performers,” Kelsey said. “It’s a good time to meet them, maybe if there’s someone you’ve heard about and you want to know more about them.”

This year’s featured performers are Woods Tea Company, Liza Constable, Notorious and Marc Bernier. In keeping with another festival tradition, all the featured artists are new to the festival.

“We have an informal rule that we don’t invite people back as performers for at least 10 years,” Kelsey said. “But they’re welcome to come back as guests, and their first year back they can come for free.”

Constable almost performed at the festival about 10 years ago, when her band, French-Canadian ensemble Chanterelle, was invited. Because of scheduling conflicts, she could not join the group that year, but the Nelson, N.H., native will perform as a solo artist at the festival this year, bringing her blues-based sound to the folk festival.

“I’m looking forward to camping out, I know a bunch of the people already,” Constable said. “All the musicians are with the audience on the campground. There’s a real camaraderie that happens, or so I’ve heard.”

Mix of sounds

The Vermont-based Woods Tea Company has performed regionally for about 25 years, with a mix of Celtic, folk, bluegrass and sea shanties. Despite the recent deaths of founding member Rusty Jacobs and fiddler Chip Chase, the group has continued on, often with a guest performer to fill out the sound. “We’ve been dying to get them, but they’ve always had other events going on,” said Howard Eskin, pre-event coordinator.

The festival also aims to feature a mix of different sounds with its performers. Bernier, from Mystic Seaport in Connecticut, will perform sea shanties a cappella at this year’s festival.

“He’s an actual shanty man; he actually is a sailor,” Eskin said.

A sampler concert begins at 10:25 a.m. Saturday, and will feature all of the festival’s performers in 20-minute sets.

Workshops are another big part of GottaGetGon, and are held two or three at a time. Each one has a different theme, including a Cajun music workshop and the drum circle, which is led by Chrys Ballerano.

“We’ve done that the last couple of years, as long as we’ve kept far enough away from everyone so we don’t bother anyone,” Kelsey said.

Other parts of the festival are more informal, such as the swing gathering, led by PSG member Dave Krump. “Anyone who wants to bring an instrument can come, and for over an hour you can sing, play, listen or dance,” Kelsey said.

The festival ends Sunday night with the A Cappella Sing, another informal event open to everyone.

Fun for all ages

According to Kelsey, people of all ages can be found at the festival each year.

“Last year, we had something going on that apparently teenagers really liked — they were all texting and calling their friends, saying, ‘You have to get down here!’ ” Kelsey said. “It’s unusual that there’s something that teenagers like that the rest of us also like, that adults also like.”

Reach Gazette reporter Brian McElhiney at 395-3111 or mcelhiney@dailygazette.net.

SCHEDULE

Friday:

3 p.m. — Gates open

7 p.m. — Potluck Dinner

8 p.m. — New Generation Folk concert with Jean Rohe, Citizen Genest, Hannah Rosen

Saturday

10:25 a.m. — Sampler Concert, all featured performers

1:15 p.m. — Liza Constable

2:15 p.m. — Workshops: Sing in Your Own Voice; Accompaniment

3:15 p.m. — Woods Tea Company

4:15 p.m. — Workshops: Singin’ in the Kitchen; Swing Chords

6:15 p.m. — Swing Gathering

8 p.m. — Country Dance, with Notorious

Sunday

10:15 a.m. — Workshops: Wake up with Gospel; Drum Circle Part 1

11 a.m. — Workshops: Gypsy Fiddle; Song Swap; Drum Circle Part 2

1 p.m. Marc Bernier

2 p.m. — Workshops: Folk singing show for kids with Paul Strausman; Drinking Songs; Music of French Canada

3 p.m. — Notorious

4:15 p.m. — Open Stage

A Cappella Sing to follow in the evening.