Director: David Lytel
$10,000 grant from NEA was frozen because of a budget request from Reagan; it was later reinstated. "It’s pretty mind-boggling when you consider that the health of arts organizations depends on whether your paper ends up on the right desk…” – David Lytel, Festival organizer
The loss of the once-vacant Center Ithaca site, where the Festival cavorted for the past four years was mourned; many new performance sites were set all over town. Highlights included face-painting, folksinger Susan Graetz, Finnish fiddler Richard Koski, David Borden and SS Jones, Peggy Haine and the Lowdown Alligator Jass Band, the Appalachian Cloggers, Desperado, the Open Air Storytelling Festival, featuring the Odyssey storytellers and guests and more. “Maybe the young people are getting older.” – Warren Schlesinger, noting that more onlookers seemed to have gray hair, “Or maybe it shows that the event is earning more community acceptance.” More people than ever attended this year, with estimates at 20,000 people for the weekend.