MARQUETTE -- The inaugural Upper Peninsula Folklife Festival is scheduled March 14-16 at Northern Michigan University.

It is sponsored by NMU's Beaumier Heritage Center and will feature band performances, music workshops, dancing, craft demonstrations and regional food.

The festival will open at 8 p.m. (EDT) on Friday, March 14, with a performance by the Canadian band Le Vent du Nord at Forest Roberts Theatre.

Keenan Otchingwanigan will open the show. He is a 14-year-old fiddle player from the Lac Courte Oreilles Indian Reservation in Wisconsin and will play a mixture of Native American and European music.

Tickets are $6 for students, $10 for NMU staff and $15 for the general public.

Saturday events will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the University Center and all are free to the public.

Sunday's events will also be free to the public, with the exception of a Great Yooper Buffet from 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. for $8.75.

For more information, contact Daniel Truckey at the Beaumier Heritage Center at 906-227-1219.