The 34th edition of the Ann Arbor Folk Festival boasts an impressive roster of new and veteran acts, with headliners including the Avett Brothers, the Swell Season, Judy Collins and Mavis Staples. This year’s festival will take place at Hill Auditorium on Friday, Jan. 28 and Saturday, Jan. 29, and is the single largest fundraiser of the year for The Ark, Ann Arbor’s fabulous non-profit home for acoustic music. Recently I spoke with The Ark’s Program Director Anya Siglin to give us a preview of the festival and talk about the joys and challenges of putting together such a major event.

Q. How difficult is it to get artists to come out to Ann Arbor in cold, snowy January to play at the festival?

A. It’s very hard; people are really not on tour at the end of January. They’re starting in mid-February, and everybody is touring in March. The hardest part is getting the headliners and sub-headliners. I can’t book anything else until I get the headliners; it shapes the whole evening. Everything has to be so diverse because it’s a long night. If you have the same type of music all night, if you have singer-songwriter after singer-songwriter or one bluegrass act after the other, the night would get boring. So you have to pick and choose wisely, and it has to be diverse so that people are going to want to sit there from 6:30 ‘til 11 and not want to get out their seat. That’s a long night. You start with your headliner who’ll draw the people in, then we throw a bunch of names in a hat and I go to town. Things are going well, we’re on target to sell out two nights like we did last year and the year before.

Q. You could not have found a more compelling, hotter group to headline Friday night than The Avett Brothers, whose major label debut album “I And Love And You” has created quite a buzz.

A. I have to agree with you on that. I read every music publication to make sure I know who the big group is that people are going to want to see. The Friday night of the festival is the push-the-envelope night, geared towards getting the students in to learn what The Ark is. I’m also excited that Citizen Cope is coming through solo on Friday. He’s played in the Detroit area but I don’t know if he’s ever been in Ann Arbor. I saw him at SXSW in Austin last year and I thought he’d be great solo and it just worked out.

Q. Another big name on the first night is Vienna Teng, an Ann Arbor favorite. She’s now living here and going school at U of M, right?

A. Yeah, she did a benefit for us in August and now she’s coming to do the Folk Festival and we’ll have her back for a couple of nights at The Ark or somewhere else.

Q. What can you tell us about the support acts on Friday, including the Spring Standards, the Paper Raincoat, Anais Mitchell and Theo Katzman?

A. With the Spring Standards, I first saw them at a (music) conference. Then I booked them for a free student show at The Ark in September and I think that students will like them at the festival as well. They ‘re a young group who use three-part harmony, lots of instrumentals. They do something I’ve not seen before, where they take a drum kit and break it up among the three of ‘em. Somebody plays the kick drum and the snare and the floor tom; it’s very different and fun.

Alex Wong, who plays with Vienna Teng, is in the Paper Raincoat along with Amber Rubarth. Anais Mitchell is out of Vermont and is on (Ani DiFranco’s) Righteous Babe label. She’s a nice singer-songwriter and a real good acoustic guitar player. Theo Katzman, the guitarist of My Dear Disco, is now out on his own. He just did a ‘Take a Chance Tuesday’ at The Ark and was tremendous.

Q. And what a great choice having Susan Werner as the MC for both night of the festival. She’s such a great musician in her own right and also such a whip smart, funny person. She’s the best!

A. Isn’t she?! She really is. That’s the hardest job out there for anybody to do, being an MC. Some have worked out better than others, but she’s going to do her homework and read about all the artists and keep the evening flowing. While they’ll be doing all the set changes, you won’t notice it because she’s so entertaining; and what a voice, too.

Q. Your headliner on Saturday, Jan. 29 is the Swell Season, the duo which won an Academy Award for their song ‘Falling Slowly’ from the film “Once.” Also that night will be the legendary Judy Collins and Mavis Staples. Have these artists played the festival or The Ark before?

A. We ‘ve tried to get the Swell Season for a couple of years. They have not played The Ark or the festival before. They’re flying into the country to do the show and then leaving. We’re pretty excited to have them here.

Mavis Staples played with the Staple Singers at Frog Island before, and I believe a long time ago they probably played The Ark. Same thing with Judy, we did her at an outside concert but not at The Ark. I tried to get something for everybody on Saturday night, which features more of the quiet, traditional type artists. We’re told that Judy loves The Ark and is looking forward to doing this, and Mavis is just hot right now.

Q. What should we know about the rest of Saturday’s lineup?

A. There’s Red Horse with Eliza (Gilkyson), John (Gorka) and Lucy (Kaplansky). They’re doing a whole tour together. Eilen Jewell is out of Boston and she’s kind of roots country combined with western swing. I think people are going to be pleasantly surprised with her. Newfound Road is a brand new bluegrass band out of Ohio.

The Doyle and Debbie Show I first saw on Conan and they’re tremendous. It’s a parody on what country music used to be and they’re hilarious. They have their own show every Tuesday night in Nashville and sell it out every time. It’s totally different and basically a tacky tribute to Music City, including the twang-twang, the tacky costumes and the big hair. It’s a lot of fun and I think that’s going to be the show-stopper. It’s just so different and not what we normally do and that’s why I wanted to put it in there. Shake it up a little; that’s why I’m here, right?

Q. The music programming at The Ark continues to be impressive, even during these tough economic times. What keeps people coming into the venue night after night?

A. I think it does help that we are open seven nights a week. We can just keep things going, and I make sure that we bring a lot of different things in. There is stuff that’s always going to sell out, then there’s the new stuff that might just bring thirty people in. But that’s what we do, we try and bring good music to the community. Some shows do well and others don’t, but it all balances out in the end. That’s what we hope for. We have an audience built up in Ann Arbor that supports us, and I try and keep our prices low enough so that people can come out. I love what I’m doing, the music is great, the people I work with are wonderful and the community’s great. The Ark is an intimate listening room and is always better than just listening to an artist’s CD.

Tickets to the 34th Ann Arbor Folk Festival are available by phone at (734)763-TKTS or in person at the Michigan Union Ticket Office, Herb David Guitar Studio, the Ark box office, or any TicketMaster outlet, or on line at www.ticketmaster.com. Tickets are $30 and $47.50 for a single night; $50 and $85 for series tickets.

Martin Bandyke is the morning host at Ann Arbor’s 107one, WQKL-FM. Follow him on Twitter and at www.martinbandyke.com.