Barry Olivier obituary
Barry Olivier (November 2, 1935 – September 24, 2023) was an American guitar teacher who was the creator and producer of the Berkeley Folk Music Festival from 1958 to 1970.
Barry Olivier obituary
Barry Olivier retired from teaching in 2019, after being diagnosed with dementia. He died on the morning of September 24, 2023, at the age of 87.
Olivier was part of the Berkeley folk music scene from the 1950s onward. He was influenced by folk revivalists such as Burl Ives, Carl Sandburg, and John Jacob Niles, who he saw perform on campus at Cal. Beginning in 1956 he hosted “The Midnight Special” on KPFA radio.
He started a music instrument shop in Berkeley, The Barrel Folk Music Center, to serve the growing folk music community during the mid-1950s.
In 1958, Olivier, as a former student of UC Berkeley envisioned and created The Berkeley Folk Festival which became an annual event, directed and produced by Olivier, until 1970. Performers and workshop participants included Alan Lomax, Doc Watson and his son Merle, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Mississippi John Hurt, Almeda Riddle, Mance Lipscomb, Alice Stuart, and folklorists Charles Seeger and Archie Green.
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