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The National Guard Armory, a short skip across the parking lot, is no longer a venue.

All of Thursday's dances, and some of Friday's, have been moved to St. Ann's Parish Hall at Fifth and Gold streets. Centennial Hall will host late-night dances from 11:15 p.m. to the wee hours on Friday and Saturday.

The Centennial Hall main stage opens at 7 p.m. Monday with the Juneau Pride Chorus. The stage reopens at 7 p.m. Tuesday through April 15, with bonus matinee sets starting at noon on Saturday and Sunday.

In all, there are slots for 129 15-minute sets on the main stage. Audiences are used to the format, and performers who deign to play longer risk getting barred from playing the following year.

This year's guest artist, the Carolina Chocolate Drops, will play a 45-minute set at 8 p.m. Thursday; a post-concert dance will be held at 11:15 p.m. Saturday; and the end-of-festival finale at 9 p.m. Sunday.

"We're really excited," said band member Dom Flemons. "It's just amazing that you guys picked us to be your guest artist."

The main stage sets will be broadcast live on KRNN/102.7 FM, Rain Country Radio and www.ktoo.org.

As she did last year, Nicole Lantz has created the backdrop for the Centennial Hall stage. Pelican artist Eric Bealer designed the official poster and T-shirt art.

The festival had been using the Armory on and off since 1980, and full-time on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights since 1990.

As of now, the space is vacant. The Alaska Mental Health Trust owns the land and is getting its paperwork in order, examining its easements and plot lines to determine the value of the parcel.

"What it boiled down to was the fact that the building had been neglected for most of the winter, and there was a fair amount of damage," said Linda Frame, Alaska Folk Festival president. "No one was going to work on fixing that for us."

The city hopes to buy the land this summer, said Heather Marlow, the city's Lands and Resources Manager. The space will be used for some sort of public purpose, possibly a performing arts center or an extension of the existing meeting space in Centennial Hall.

"We could use that space for a lot of different events, not just Folk Fest," Frame said. "I think a performing arts center would be great. We just need to think about the space we have available and what our needs really are."

The festival board contemplated moving dances to the Elks' Lodge, among other options. For 2008, it may consider the Alaska Native Brotherhood Hall or the Marie Drake gymnasium.

"We were looking at the Elks for a while, but if we had two venues off-site that were significantly farther away from Centennial Hall, that would be a huge problem logistically," Frame said.

"(The Armory) works pretty well when we can get people walking back and forth across the parking lot," she added.

Volunteers are still needed to help sell merchandise and with odd jobs around the festival. There will be a sign-up sheet at Centennial Hall for those who wish to offer services.

For more information, including up-to-date daily lineup changes, visit the Web site at www.akfolkfest.org.

• Korry Keeker can be reached at korry.keeker@juneauempire.com.