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The Winnipeg Folk Festival celebrates its 50th year running in 2025, and the Free Press has been there since Day 1.
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 10/07/2025 (366 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
The Winnipeg Folk Festival celebrates its 50th year running in 2025, and the Free Press has been there since Day 1.
Here is a collection of photos from the earliest days to today, commemorating the past five decades of festivities at Birds Hill Park and the community that resulted.
Performers at the first Winnipeg Folk Festival in August 1974. (John Bachmann)Heat failed to deter faithful festival-goers on July 10, 1976. (Dave Johnson / Free Press files)This aerial view shows some of the thousands of music fans who flocked to Birds Hill Provincial Park to attend the fourth annual Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1977. More than 24,000 people attended the festival. Organizers said the three-day event had become the largest folk festival in North America. (Dave Bonner / Free Press files)Aerial view of the Winnipeg Folk Festival grounds on July 11, 1977. (Free Press files)A square dancing workshop on August 15, 1979. (Paul Deleski / Free Press files)A sea of people watch and listen at the main stage on Friday, July 14, 1980. 30,000 people were expected to attend the festival that weekend. (Free Press files)A festival-goer takes in the tunes on July 14, 1980. (Free Press files)A family attempts to beat the heat on July 12, 1982. (Jim Wiley / Free Press files)Scott Johnson, 27, of Oregon and Ruth Dixon, 32, of Minnesota were married on July 12, 1982 in a tent before 300 spectators at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. The couple, assisted in their vows by Kent Militzer and his wife Jan, met at the festival several years before. They've been promised a festival pass on their 50th anniversary. (Jim Wiley / Free Press files)Artis the Spoon Man blows bubbles at the audience from the main stage of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Artis, of Seattle, Wash., was one of many performers who travelled to Winnipeg to take part in the 10th annual festival on July 10, 1983. Performers on stage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on July 6, 1983. (Dave Landry / Free Press files)Berne Thury from Minneapolis, Minnesota relaxes at the main stage on July 9, 1983. (Ken Gigliotti / Free Press files)Nicholas Laporte, 4, gives his mother Mette a hand with a foot wash during the Winnipeg Folk Festival on Saturday, July 9, 1983. (Stu Phillips / Free Press files)Festival-goers find refuge from the heat on July 9, 1983. (Stu Phillips / Free Press files)A daytime stage is seen in 1983. (Free Press files)Al Simmons, in usual sedate attire, gives a child a lift on his horse bike on July 17, 1984. (Ken Gigliotti / Free Press files)Sandy Anderson and husband Gene, from Frazee, Minn., keep dry beneath a canvas during a downpour at the 1984 festival, while son Mitch sits on the ground at centre. (Ken Gigliotti / Free Press files)David Essig performs at a workshop on July 11, 1986. (Phil Hossack / Free Press files)Joel Bailey, 10, finds he has to fight the forces of gravity to complete his world tour of continents marked on the earth ball at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on July 12, 1986. John Radcliffe monitors the young traveller's progress. (Phil Hossack / Free Press files)A member of Lights in a Fat City plays a drum at the festival on July 8, 1989. The group was known for playing on instruments from all over the world, alongside custom built devices made from recycled scrap metals and bamboo. (Ken Gigliotti / Free Press files)Kevin Muir blows giant bubbles while sister Carolyn watches on July 8, 1988. (Dave Johnson / Free Press files)Scruj MacDuhk play on a daytime stage at the festival in 1998. (Boris Minkevich / Free Press files)Angus Grant of Shooglenifty from Scotland jams with groups Tabache and Wild Mountain Time on a Sunday, July 9, 2000. (Joe Bryksa / Free Press files)Ariana Histed, 8, plays in the crowds with a twirling ribbon at the Folk Festival on July 9, 2004. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)Festival volunteers Kim Flynn and Sam Owens take a break from the heat on Friday, July 7, 2005. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)Two women dance in the mud at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on a Sunday evening, July 10, 2005. (Boris Minkevich / Free Press files)Crowds at the Little Stage on the Prairie on Saturday. July 9, 2011. (Hadas Parush / Free Press files)A festival-goer plays with devil sticks as the sun sets on the second last day of the 2012 festival. (Melissa Tait / Free Press files)Twin eight-year-old brothers Ethan and Kieran Wiebe practice their hand stands prior to Beth Orton performing on Friday, July 6, 2012. (Trevor Hagan / Free Press files)The crowd cheers on Feist as she performs on the Main Stage at the 39th annual Winnipeg Folk Festival at Birds Hill Park Wednesday, July 4, 2012. (Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)The sun sets on the last day of the festival on Sunday, July 8, 2012. (John Woods / Free Press files)Festival-goers groove while Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros play on Thursday, July 9, 2015. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)Kacey Musgraves closes out the Winnipeg Folk Festival Sunday, July 14, 2019. (Mike Sudoma / Free Press files)
People rush to claim spots on the field at the main stage on July 9, 2022. (Daniel Crump / Free Press files)Kat Rother dances as Finjan performs on the Big Bluestem stage on Sunday, July 9, 2023. (John Woods / Free Press files)Juno Award-winning artist Elisapie performs at the main stage Friday, July 12, 2024. (Nic Adams / Free Press)
Lucinda Williams performs on opening night of the 49th edition of the Winnipeg Folk Festival in 2024. (Nic Adams / Free Press files)
People wait in the merch line to snap up 50th anniversary merchandise on the first day of the 2025 festival. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)Five-year-old Mariel Ladouceur, (left) and Lauriane Bellefeuille, age four, listen to the music at Folk Fest on July 10, 2025. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)The crowd listens to Allison Russell on the main stage as the sun sets on July 10, 2025. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press)
Mike Raimbault isn’t one to pay mind to the standings, but the Winnipeg Sea Bears’ head coach is in tune enough to know that his team may have a chance to separate itself from the rest of the Canadian Elite Basketball League’s Western Conference this weekend.
The Sea Bears (11-5) won’t call Sunday’s contest a free space on the bingo card. That would be nothing short of disrespecting an opposing team with professional athletes who are more than capable of putting it together for 40 minutes.
However, on paper, this lopsided tilt projects as a layup for Winnipeg. The Sea Bears remain undefeated through seven games at Canada Life Centre and will be more than happy to welcome the struggling Calgary Surge (3-13) to the den (2:30 p.m. tip-off).
After Thursday’s 97-93 victory over the Edmonton Stingers, the Sea Bears own their largest lead of the season in the Western Conference — a 1.5-game advantage with one game in hand over the Vancouver Bandits.
Winnipeg payments company Telpay Inc. has acquired Notch Financial, a Toronto-based business that creates accounts receivable automation software.
The acquisition strengthens Telpay’s ability to help Canadian businesses manage the complete flow of money by adding modern invoicing, payment collection and ordering capabilities to its platform, according to a news release.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Mark Loewen, Telpay’s president, described it as “the first strategic, large-scale acquisition” in the company’s 41-year history.
Ray-Patrick Didder is no stranger to heat. The product of Oranjestad, Aruba, loves to see the thermostat climb high as it does back home pretty much year-round.
Perhaps it’s not a coincidence that his own play is now following the weather patterns here in Winnipeg. The sizzling Goldeyes shortstop has been hitting the cover off the ball lately, leading an offence that has snapped out of an early-season cold streak to become one of the best in the American Association.
Consider this: Heading into Friday’s start of a three-game series against the Gary SouthShore RailCats at Blue Cross Park, Didder had posted 25 hits in 65 at bats (.385 average) with 18 RBI, 21 runs scored, 16 walks and just 11 strikeouts over his previous 18 games.
He kept the good times rolling by belting his eighth homer of the year and scoring a pair of runs as the Fish won for the third time in four outings, this time by a score of 9-3, in front of 3,989 fans to improve to 23-26.
OTTAWA — The whirlwind that has been Dr. Joss Reimer’s career has officially touched down in Building 62.
A modern, non-descript complex in a suburban industrial park, Building 62 is the only name given to the headquarters of the Public Health Agency of Canada, and Reimer’s new home as the country’s chief public health officer.
For the record, whirlwind is hardly an exaggeration.
Seven years ago, Reimer was a well-respected, somewhat low-key obstetrician and medical educator in Winnipeg. Along the way, she spent time as a YouTube public-health influencer, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority’s medical director for public health, the provincial government’s medical officer of health and — in the role most familiar to Manitobans — the medical lead and official spokesperson for the provincial COVID-19 vaccine implementation task force.
Carol Sanders5 minute readYesterday at 7:11 PM CDT
Manitoba’s newest representative in the Senate only moved to the province in 2019.
Unlike former Manitoba Senate candidates, Geeta Tucker hasn’t known this province for very long — and that’s raised the eyebrows of some experienced politicians and academics.
Retired Manitoba senator Don Plett said he hadn’t heard of Tucker until this week. The Conservative said he has nothing against her personally, but he questioned whether she knows Manitoba well enough to represent its interests in the chamber of sober second thought.
“I think it is imperative that you have strong roots to the region you’re representing,” Plett said Wednesday.
