The Delaware Friends of Folk has crafted an innovative way to showcase local talent, leveraging both their monthly Coffeehouse series as well as the Annual Delmarva Folk Festival (now in its 20th year!). They’re calling it the Delmarva Folk Hero contest.

Here’s how it works.

Candidates must perform in one of the two upcoming Delaware Friends of Folk’s Open Mic Coffeehouses, held on July 16, 2011 and August 20, 2011. At those coffeehouses, ballots will be distributed to the audience (performers are encouraged to bring friends!). The top performers from those 2 Open Mics will be Finalists and will be asked to perform on the Main Stage of the Delmarva Folk Festival on Friday evening, October 7, 2011.

At that Friday evening Festival performance, ballots will again be distributed to the audience (again, get those fans and friends to come out and vote for you!). The best performer will be dubbed the 2011 Delmarva Folk Hero, and will be awarded a prize package which will include:

• $100 cash
• a longer performance slot on the Main Stage on Saturday (the following day)
• an invitation to appear with Mark Rogers live on the air on WSTW 93.7's Hometown Heroes show
• Recording Studio time with Digital Street Studio includes 2 hours for recording and 2 hours for mixing, editing, and mastering.
• Photo shoot with professional photographer Eric Young
• More prizes may be added still!

There are a few “rules and guidelines” to be mentioned:

• Candidates should present a genre similar to the ones typically presented by the Delaware Friends of Folk – Folk (traditional, new, or “singer songwriter”), Bluegrass, Blues, Celtic, Jazz, New Age, World, Old-Time, Roots, Story-telling.
• Candidates should be solo through 5 performers, with a strong preference toward fewer performers in any act, to simplify changeovers. No drum kits, please.
• Ballots will be distributed for the audience to vote for their favorite performer. No proxy, delayed, or internet voting will be allowed – you must be present to vote.
• The Board will review the ballots, and will use them to help make the final programming decision on the finalists, as well as the final winner. The Board does not anticipate overruling the audience vote, but reserves the right to do so.
• The Finalists will each get a performance slot on the Friday night of the Festival. Each slot is anticipated to be 25 minutes long, but this may change depending on the number of Finalists chosen.
• The Finalists must be available to perform at the designated time on Saturday in the event that they win, or will forfeit the entire prize package.
• The Finalists will be announced here on the website & by the press in September.

So plan to get to the Delaware Friend of Folk Coffeehouse on July 16 or August 20, and bring your friends! You need to be there by 7pm to sign up for a performance slot. The Coffeehouses are held at Wesley Chapel, at Bradford & Division Streets in Dover Delaware. The coffeehouse cost is $3 for members and $5 for non-members.