Doin’ The Fest

(Editor’s note: We are just recovering from an exhausting Folk Fest weekend. And now you’re telling us we have to Fringe for 10 days? You’re killing us, Festival City.)

It’s a weekend that tens of thousands of Edmonton and area residents look forward to all year long. For those of us who are die-hard attendees of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, it’s easy to forget that there are people who have never set foot inside Gallagher Park during Folk Fest weekend. Every year, sure enough, there are folk fest newbies who are seeing it all for the very first time.

This year, the 30th incarnation of the festival, I hit the park with my boyfriend Tommy, one of these festival virgins, and we had a fantastic time sharing everything the festival had to offer.

The Location

Gallagher Park, is gorgeous and the hill is inviting from a distance. Tommy charges on ahead, dead set on a spot that has no one sitting in it, a little more than halfway up the hill and in a great line of sight for the stage. I quickly stop him!

There’s a reason that spot is empty – there are a few areas where the hill is so steep that 30 minutes of sitting on it will leave you numb from the waist down. The pins and needles when you start to regain feeling are definitely not the highlight of your night. We settle on a place off at the side on flatter ground until, in true folk fest spirit, we’re invited to share a lovely, well placed tarp with some new friends.

You can always find a place to squeeze in and see the performer that you want to, or if you’re looking for some shade and a quick nap there are great places for that, too. A summer nap in the sun on a lush patch of grass is certainly a treat, especially with live music as an accompaniment.

The people

The people, for me, include the performers because whether they are or aren’t making music at the time they’re as interesting as all of the other assorted attendees from all backgrounds and walks of life. Folk Fest is where you’ll see scenes that just don’t play out anywhere else in life.

One of the most memorable for me, this year, was on Friday night watching Breabech, Eivor and her band, and members of Spirit of the West on a workshop stage. In the middle of a solo section of a piece, you’ve got Eivor’s 20-something Hipster-cool Icelandic electric guitarist trading licks with 50-something Geoffrey Kelley who’s playing a wooden flute, while an obviously trained dancer performs to the side of the stage with a hula hoop in movements so perfect that they could have been painstakingly choreographed to the song. Long sentence, amazing sight.

Even after ten years of festivals, things like this will stop me in my tracks. So, for a new festival attendee there were many moments of “Did I really just see that?” Yes, you really did. And at this festival you always will.

The Food

Oh, Folk Fest concession, you provide me with my favourite food of the summer. Tommy and I both sampled just about everything we could. I also  introduced him to my very favourites, including the festival-required corn-on-a-stick from Fat Franks. If I could survive on nothing but that, it would be all I ate for the four days.

Splitting up, grabbing several dishes each, and then sharing on the tarp, or in the shade of the concession tent is definitely the way to go. The one thing I didn’t have at the festival this year? Green onion cakes. I adore them, but the lines are exponentially longer than for any other booth. Just think of all the other food you could eat in the time it would take you to get your green onion cake! It’s about priorities, and good food.

The Music

The heart of the festival and the part that I look forward to more than any other! Every year, Terry Wickham and his festival team put together an incredible lineup. There are always a few performers that I’m dying to see, whether they’re brand new or festival favourites that come back year after year.

Danny Michel, Spirit of the West, Steven Page, Linda Tilley and the Cultural Heritage Choir and so many more were on my must-see list, and I managed to catch everyone that I was really looking forward too.

It would take me weeks to review all of the shows that I want to tell you about, so let me just sum it up by saying they were all great and left me wanting so much more.

Occasionally, the festival can get a little bit heavy on solo performing singer-songwriters with guitars, so it’s an absolute treat to end our nights with acts like Raul Malo or Boz Scaggs. I will admit to being asked many times why certain people didn’t bring a band to the festival, and ended up explaining to Tommy that it’s just sort of a Folk Fest convention. Although, not my favourite of them. Even as a die-hard, there are only so many solo guitars I can hear in a row before they all start to blend together in my memory.

Performers like Danny Michel, however, with his loop pedal, or Steven Page with cellist/backup vocalist Kevin Fox, have found unique ways of presenting themselves in a solo or almost-solo setting that not only holds interest all the way through their set but keeps you wondering what the heck they could possibly do next.

Another Folk Fest musical tradition is new discoveries! Every year, I walk out of Gallagher Park with a head full of music and a notebook full of people I need to look up on the Internet when I get home. There will always be at least one act that you’ve never heard of who blows you away, and it’s a common topic of discussion among festival-goers for the week or two afterward.

This year my discovery was Braebach. The members of the band, from Scotland, all looked to be in their late teens or early twenties and they absolutely floored me with their talent. Let me just say, if cute young bagpipers don’t get all the girls, they certainly should!

The End

The Folk Fest spirit and adrenaline will definitely carry you home on Sunday night, but I find that waking up on Monday morning is always the hardest part of the weekend; knowing that life is back to normal for another year. It can be a hard adjustment to make, especially when the Sunday night closes with talent like Steven Page’s. But I made it to work, and that was half the battle right there!

How do I sum up the festival, what do I say to wrap up all of these thoughts? Let’s try this: If you haven’t gone, go next year. If you’ve taken a few years off, go back next year. And if you’re an Edmonton Folk Music Festival die-hard, then keep folkin’ on, my friend.

- Eri Gayler

- Photos: Deborah Merriam