Willow Folk Festival set for Aug. 8-10

WILLOW — Located on a pocket of flat land within the scenic hilly region of Jo Daviess County, the community of Willow only has a handful of residents in it.

It’s also home to a Methodist church, as well as a big red barn that’s approaching its sesquicentennial year, where a pair of locals work on the family farm.

Much like the Yasgurs of Woodstock back in Summer of ’69, the Schlafers of Willow open their dairy farm to a dedicated group of music lovers who camp and wander around, basking in the sun, having fun and enjoying the music and messages they’ve come to love.

The Willow Folk Festival brings together a wide variety of musicians who perform bluegrass, gospel and country tunes, with the Schlafer’s 1876 barn as a backdrop.

This year’s festival is from Aug. 8-10, with campers settling in the first day and an impressive line-up of performances from musicians throughout the other two days. Admission is $5 per day or $25 per camper for the weekend; children eight and younger are free.

Willow’s first day is simply a set-up and gathering day for its campers on the Schlafers’ cow pasture, with no live music until the following day. It’s typically a time when those who’ve come to know each other through a mutual enjoyment of music get together and catch up while children play and the sounds of nature’s own music drift through the air — birds chirping, trees rustling in the breeze. The west branch of the Plum River runs through the property, and several of its attendees wander down to the shallow stream to get their feet wet and soak in the surroundings.

Saturday’s music begins around 10 a.m., with several acts taking the stage throughout the day and into the night. After a Sunday morning church service, the music continues until the early evening. Attendees can bring lawn chairs and blankets to sit on, or grab a seat on the hay bales scattered near the stage.

The line-up was still being finalized as of press time. Up-to-date announcements and information on the festival is posted on the event’s Facebook page, “Willow Folk Festival – The Official Group.”

Stewart Schlafer has helped manage the music stage since 1969, a year after the event first began at the nearby church as one of its fundraisers. These days, his son Derrick Schlafer handles much of the event’s organization and publicity as vice president of the festival’s board of directors, with Matt Windmoeller-Schmit as its president.

When the church decided to stop the music and shed its affiliation with the event, canceling it in 2023, the Schlafer family stepped up and stepped in to keep the 50-plus year tradition alive, hosting their first festival last year.

The fest, known by long-time attendees simply as “Willow,” wouldn’t be possible without the Schlafers, whose farm first hosted the event last year.

“Growing up out here, I always enjoyed that weekend,” Derrick said of the festival.

“It was always the weekend just before school started. I always had fun there when I was a kid and met a lot of people. I really enjoyed it and was disappointed when the church stopped it. I had a lot of people tell me that they really missed Willow, and I’m like, ‘You know what, I’m just going to put it all together and see what happens.’”

For now, the event and its board are trying simply to offset operating costs, but plan to make it a fundraiser for local organizations, Derrick said. While maintaining its dedicated flock of “Willow brothers,” attendance in recent years hasn’t been its best. Last year’s festival was simply “a trial run,” Derrick said, to see if it still mattered to people.

It turns out that it did.

“It’s a very friendly atmosphere,” Derrick said. “I never had any problems last year with anyone getting out of hand or rowdy. Everybody was very happy to have it back and a lot of them were grateful.”

Many attendees come from large urban areas, Derrick said, and the festival is music to their ears, as they look forward to trading the noise of the city for music in the country, surrounded by picturesque scenery of rural America.

“There’s a lot of people who have come here from the suburbs of Chicago who don’t get to go out into the countryside,” Derrick said. “There have been some who’ve told me: ‘You don’t have any idea how refreshing it was to get out of the city for the Willow vibe.’ For a lot of people, it’s refreshing for them.”

Guests have also be mindful of the fact that the event took place on private property, cleaning up after themselves and not leaving any trash on the Schlafers’ pasture, which is something Stewart greatly appreciates.

“I’ll tell them that you have to clean this pasture up to just like how it was when you came, or else you aren’t going to come here anymore, and they do,” Stewart said. “Respect the property, respect the people, and if you don’t, we’re not going to have it.”

Stewart and Derrick represent the third and fourth-generations, respectively, of the family that’s owned the farm for more than a century, since 1910, and they’re proud of their family’s place in local history. The farm has even had its 15 minutes of fame — twice.

The barn was featured in a 1989 Time magazine story on refurbishing old barns, and it was also used as a model for the Ertl Toy Company’s American Country cold-cast porcelain barn series in 1996.

It’s a good thing, then, that Stewart’s dad didn’t take his son’s advice.

Stewart tells the story about how he once wanted to have his dad, Pete, raze the barn and build a new one, but how he later came to appreciate its history and distinctive design, telling Time in 1989 that the barn “is the character and soul of our farm.”

These days, the barn is one of the attractions that have helped keep the community of Willow on the map, the other being the festival itself, which through the years, has hosted acts who’ve started out there and went on to find their place on a national stage — as well as one performer who found his place on the national stage first and then played the festival.

Jim Post, who performed at Willow, was one half of the duo Friend and Lover, who recorded “Reach out of the Darkness,” which hit No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. You may know the song, with its upbeat intro and message of hope and friendship: “I think it’s so groovy now, that people are finally getting together. I think it’s wonderful and how, that people are finally getting together …”

Post lived in Galena before his death in 2022.

His appearance, and sets by others through the years, are kept alive in the memories of devout attendees who’ve returned to the festival year after year.

Willow has attracted performers and fans from all over the country throughout the years, and the Schlafers and their friends on the festival’s board are looking to make this new chapter in the event’s songbook as good as it was during its heyday.

“It’s enjoyable for all of the people who come,” Stewart said. “I hope it’s going to be a success like it’s been in other years.”

If it’s anything like the song that put one of the event’s musical acts on the chart back in the day, getting people to come to the festival shouldn’t be a problem. After all, like the song says: “It’s so groovy now, that people are finally getting together … ”

The Willow Folk Fest runs all day from Aug. 8-10 at the Schlafer Farm, 6250 Willow Road. Admission is $5 per day or $25 per camper for the weekend; children eight and younger are free. Go to facebook.com/groups/willowfolkfestival for more information.