Listen / EAST LANSING, MI – Both Lansing and East Lansing will attract throngs of music lovers starting tonight, with big festivals on the same dates. WKAR's Scott Pohl reports. The National Folk Festival began a three-year run in East Lansing in 1999. It became an annual event, known as the Great Lakes Folk Festival, in 2002. The Michigan State University Museum sponsors the festival. Communications Manager Lora Helou says it's a coincidence that the festival is on the same dates as the Old Town JazzFest in Lansing this year. "Traditionally," Helou explains, our event is the second weekend of August, which we've been doing as the National and the Great Lakes Folk Festival, and JazzFest is the first weekend in August. And so, because July 31st snuck up on a Friday, and August 1st was a Saturday, that's kind of what threw things off."