Category: Music

The Wpg Folk Festival site security volunteer crew seems to be well organized. I received a letter in the mail inviting me back, with appropriate email contact addresses to confirm my plans. I replied, they replied and it’s falling into place. I have been through it once and I have figured out the basics. It’s…

In the summer of 1995, I bought a copy of James Keelaghan’s album “A Recent Future” at the bookstore at Lake Louise junction, and I was immediately caught by the ballad “Cold Missouri Waters.” Keelaghan had won the Juno for Roots and Traditional Album for his previous album “My Skies” in 1994 and was not…

The forecast for Saturday night and Sunday had been for rain. It didn’t rain. It was a cloudy, cool day but the sun came out and it warmed up enough for me to put my fleece away during the afternoon. I started my day with a session that I will remember for a long time.…

It was cold and cloudy all day, but it did not rain. Claire and I arrived around 10:00 AM, a short time after the gates opened but well before the first sessions of the day. I had a good day, and enjoyed several acts. I wanted to see Ron Kavana and Brian McNeill, singer-songwriters from…

On Friday, the Edmonton Folk Festival offers sessions (at some other festivals these would be called workshops) on 4 stages from 6:00 to 9:00 PM and three acts on the mainstage. The weather was warm, but not hot in the late afternoon and it was cloudy. There was a forecast threat of evening rain, but…

Claire and I stayed in Canmore on Tuesday after the Canmore Folk Festival, and drove to Edmonton on Wednesday. We had planned to try some hiking and camping those days but we adapted to necessity. We had the car in a garage in Canmore to look at a transmission fluid leak, and managed to get…

This counted as one of my better days, among many good days at summer folk festivals. It was sunny warm day, with moderate winds and I was able to leave the cold weather gear in the dry sack. We started with the Canmore Pancake breakfast – pancakes and sausages served outdoors in front of the…

After being delayed by car trouble, Claire and I drove to Canmore Sunday morning August 1, set up camp at a campground in Bow Valley Provincial Park and drove to Canmore. We had missed the Saturday evening concert, but we were in time for the rest of the Festival, except for the first half hour…

My experience as a Folk Festival volunteer was good. It takes a lot of people to run this event – I heard that there were 1750 volunteers involved this year. The volunteers are treated well. Perhaps I should say that we take care our ourselves and each other. A volunteer gets a free festival pass,…