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. The session leader was Brian McNeill, and the other participants were the new Quebecois group Genticorum, and John Reischman and the Jaybirds.
Category: Story & Song
Edmonton 2004 – Saturday
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 Ireland and Scotland. I have read about their music, but I haven’t seen them perform. McNeill’s discography is rather thin for such an accomplished and experienced writer and performer, and not very accessible in Canada.
Edmonton 2004 – Friday
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 it did not rain during the evening. It cooled gradually.
Edmonton 2004 – Thursday
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 it looked at very inexpensively, but we had to wait for the work. We spent the time with camping stuff – taking care of camp, cooking meals, walking, reading. We went directly to my friend Randy’s house in Edmonton and I had the car looked at again to deal with a problem I had noticed in Canmore which had not been addressed at the garage in Canmore.
We arrived at the Edmonton Folk Festival site in Gallagher Park in time to exchange our tickets for the weekend wristband passes and to pitch a tarp halfway up the hill.
Canmore 2004 – Monday
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 Legion Hall, no charge, donations for the Bow Valley Food Bank taken with thanks, with local amateur musicians playing rock and blues standards. We went to line up at the main gate to buy our day pass, and we had a spot of luck. The main gate wasn’t supposed to open until 10:00 AM and meanwhile people with weekend passes would be admitted through the other gate at 9:30. However the ticket sellers at the main gate came out and sold passes at 9:15 and we were able to enter and to get a spot in the first ring of trees by the main stage. We had warm sunshine during the first part of the morning and shade during most of the afternoon.
Canmore 2004 – Sunday
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 of the daytime workshops on Sunday.
It was a cool day. It had rained early in the morning, but the rain held off for the rest of the day. In fact, when the wind gusted, dust clouds blew across the festival site and we got quite dusty and dirty. It was good to be back in Canmore, even on a cool, cloudy and windy day. I have good memories of other festivals there, and there is something about sitting at the workshop stages in the open field, looking at the mountains on each side of the valley, and the crowd, and listening to beloved performers…
Volunteer Experience
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, meals, water/juice/coffee/tea etc, and backstage access. There are sections of the festival devoted to the care of the volunteers – a large backstage kitchen for instance to provide the beverages and meals.
The Enemy
Winnipeg 2004 – Sunny Sunday
The fourth day of the 2004 Winnipeg Folk Festival was sunny and hot with moderate breezes. There was rain, but it arrived overnight long after the Finale.
I arrived in time to sit in the shade outside of the Shady Grove, apply sunscreen, have a cup of coffee, and listen to a workshop with Utah Phillips, Ember Swift, Paul Thorn and Joel Kroeker.
Winnipeg 2004 – Saturday
The rain stayed away. It was sunny, and it was humid at first. A reasonably steady breeze kept things moderately cool as the temperature climbed into the higher 20’s.
The ground outside and through the main gate was well trampled and starting to smell of rotten things, and there were some wet spots in the parking lot but the site stayed in good condition.