Folk Fest gets bigger, better

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This article was published 12/07/2010 (5745 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BIRDS HILL PARK — Not even the World Cup final or a parade in honour of hometown hockey hero Jonathan Toews could keep the folkies away.

The Winnipeg Folk Festival was filled with more than 11,000 music fans on a beautiful Sunday as the 37th annual edition of the province’s most popular music festival wrapped up.

And for those who did attend, the festival showed the World Cup final on two video screens for a crowd of about 300 people who cheered on as Spain beat the Netherlands 1-0.

When the final numbers are crunched, the cumulative paid total attendance over the course of the five days will be slightly higher than the 55,000 people who were at the festival last year — setting a new record — but with new initiatives that included more stages, roving minstrels, shade tents, a circus (Toronto’s Zero Gravity Circus) and a new beer tent beside the Big Bluestem stage (which proved immensely popular) people were spread out across a larger space so it didn’t feel as crowded as some past years.

"There were a lot of people here but we’ve dealt with the challenges. We’re gotten people in and out more smoothly, wait times have been less and the development of new stages and activities has moved people around so it didn’t seem as full," said executive director Tamara Kater.

The decision to have a Wednesday night show had the audience divided. Many festival-goers asked about the additional night wouldn’t mind the Wednesday show if it were an A-list act, such as Elvis Costello. People surveyed said they would like to see acts that would be worth the trip, and off the straight folk path, such as Lou Reed, the Talking Heads, Neil Young (who allegedly turned down an invitation to play this year), Wilco and Gogol Bordello.

The lack of entertainment options Thursday during the day was also brought up by a few people.

Campers were more in favour of the Wednesday night entertainment than people who drive back and forth between Winnipeg. "I was literally on the fence and could have flipped a coin, but we decided to come just because we had the weekend passes, but I wasn’t gung-ho about the lineup," said Winnipegger Sandra Kehoe, who drives to and from the site daily.

For more than 6,000 people the festival campground is an integral part of the weekend and truly captures the spirit of the event. As usual, the tent city across the road from the music site sported an ever-increasing level of creativity. Campground jams are still common, but now stages at the different structures built by the so-called "Castle Boys" (this year it was pyramid and a sphinx stage) and the Juke Joint Hideaway feature full bands and superstar jams.

On Saturday night a group of about 40 people got naked and streaked the campground, earning cheers as they passed different sites.

At the music site yesterday the crowd was treated to another day of vast musical choices, ranging from gospel to honky-tonk to indie rock and everything in between.

Tragically Hip frontman Gord Downie’s set with his side project the Country of Miracles was a little less animated than he is than with his full-time band, but he was full of smiles and jokes during his set of material from new album The Grand Bounce.

His friend Sarah Harmer was up next and charmed the crowd with a set of indie-pop before Brad Roberts and Ellen Reid of the Crash Test Dummies came out for a three-song tweener set as special guests.

"I bet most of you thought they wouldn’t let me back on this stage, but here I am, off to the side," Roberts said, referencing the band’s disastrous 2001 mainstage set when a drunk Roberts delivered an embarrassing, expletive-ridden performance.

At press time Chicago-based violinist/whistler Andrew Bird had just taken the stage to finish off another successful Folk Festival filled with good times, old friends and new memories.

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca