Fond farewell to this year’s folk festival

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This article was published 10/07/2017 (3345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They came, they saw, they danced, they got sunburned, and now it’s time for folkies to bid a fond farewell to the 2017 Winnipeg Folk Festival.

While official attendance numbers were not available Sunday night, folk fest organizers say ticket sales were up 30 per cent prior to the start of the festival and walk-up traffic has been “very strong.”

The rain-free weather can likely be thanked in part for that — though forecasts waffled between obscenely hot to thunderstorms to light showers, it was only briefly on Saturday that a few droplets hit the ground and the rest of the weekend was delightful (if not a tad toasty).

Oh yeah, and the music was pretty good, too.

If you weren’t able to make it to the festival site at Birds Hill Provincial Park this weekend, or are just looking to compare notes, Free Press staffers Erin Lebar, Jill Wilson and Rob Williams offer up some of their highlights — and a few gripes, too — from the 44th edition of the annual music fest:

Jill Wilson: Do you want to start with highlights?

 

Erin Lebar: Sure. I wasn’t able to see too, too much stuff during the day but Brandi Carlile on Main Stage was definitely a highlight for me. I don’t know if you guys were out here on Thursday night or not, but she was amazing.

Jill: Yeah, I knew she would be, but it’s always nice when they don’t let you down.

One of my highlights for workshops was Daniel Lanois, Bruce Cockburn and Graham Parker, which is a no-brainer but again it’s always nice when people don’t let you down.

I always forget how much I love Bruce Cockburn until I see him live because I grew up in the ’80s when his songs were on the radio and I really did not care for them. I always forget how much I love his songs, and on Main Stage too, he was fantastic.

Rob Williams: Yeah, I agree. His lyrics are so good and he’s such a witty, smart man and such a great guitarist as well.

Jill: Oh yeah, I always forget that too, his guitar playing is just incredible… And Graham Parker, I don’t if it’s the accent or just that they’re wittier, but British people at workshops are always just funny.

Erin: One other highlight for me was Charlotte Cardin — I hadn’t really heard of her before this and I saw her in a workshop with John K. Samson, City and Colour and Damien Jurado and she was my favourite out of all four of them and that was really surprising, She was just so great, really jazzy/raspy/smoky tone and she blew everyone out of the water.

Jill: I saw her just now with Margaret Glaspy and Foy Vance at Spruce Hollow and same thing… her voice was just amazing, beautiful.

Rob: For me, Esme Patterson — I heard one song on the radio and I saw her and she blew my mind, she was so good. And the Suitcase Junket, that’s my favourite new discovery of the weekend; he’s a swamp rock, one-man band and he was playing a guitar that he found in a dumpster and had these homemade percussion instruments he built and he was witty and fun, kind of bluesy and hardcore Americana…

Oh, and Camper Van Beethoven and Cracker, the one-two punch of that at Big Blue on Friday night was a lot of fun.

And last night at Big Blue @ Night, there was a band called MarchFourth — I couldn’t count exactly how many of them were on stage, but there were 15-20 of them and they were just partying. They had a horn section and just high-energy, super fun… just wild. They had dancers and it was just like, “wahhh!”

Jill: I’m glad that you make it to Big Blue because I’m always too lazy to go over there.

Erin: I know, it’s so far!

Jill: And I always like what’s on Main Stage too, although I have to say, last night (Saturday) I did not care for Daniel Lanois’ Main Stage performance.

Erin: I was going to ask you about that! I know that you’re a fan of Daniel Lanois and as I was sitting there watching it, I was like, ‘Man, I am not feeling this at all, I wonder what Jill thinks?’

Jill: The thing is, I am into him in general, I just wasn’t into it in this venue. I think it… like in the afternoon he played so much lovely folky stuff, and I know that he doesn’t have to do that all the time, but I think it was a bit misplaced with the audience. At the end, there were little kids near me who were covering their ears and screaming.

Erin: During the rave music portion of the set?

Jill: Yeah. I’m just surprised. It seems like it was for the wrong audience, but I also know people who thought it was great, so…

Erin: And also that really weird power outage for a minute or so, that was so strange! (A few songs into Lanois’ set, the power at Main Stage cut out, turning off the speakers and video screens. It came back on not long after.)

But yeah, for me I felt like Main Stage as a whole was too low-key. Too many acoustic sets, too many things that were making me feel sleepy, but I’m curious what you guys thought about it.

Jill: I tend to agree. I thought there needed to be a bit of a better mix earlier in the evening with some more upbeat… it seems like all the upbeat acts were at the end, and I know they like to do that for the dancers and stuff, but I would have liked to hear some more upbeat stuff earlier in the evening.

Rob: I want to step back a second and talk about other musical highlights — I camp, so in the campground there’s tons of musicians at the tent called the Juke Joint and I saw some amazing stuff there over the weekend, too.

A Winnipeg band called Woodshed Havoc, kind of bluesy, rock n’ roll party music, they were fantastic; the Dirty Catfish Brass Band were great; and some of the next generation singer-songwriters like Richard Inman…

It’s great to get to see a lot of local bands, a lot of them play the festival stages but a lot just play in the campground and it’s always a great time.

Erin: Well the campground is a big part of folk fest for a lot of people that we don’t really get to cover…

Rob: For me, camping is a huge part of the festival. I have tons of friends that camp, we’ve been camping almost 25 years together and there are some people I only see at folk festival. We get to camp together and hang out and have a drink and catch up.

Jill: And that’s the thing for me, even though I don’t camp (I used to camp), for me a big part of folk festival is meeting people that I only see here. And having a drink with them or sitting next to them and listening to music.

When you try to explain folk festival to people, they don’t think they know the bands or like the bands, but it’s not always just about the bands. It’s just a feeling that you get which is indescribable unless you’ve experienced yourself.

Rob: Yeah, I have hugged literally hundreds of people this weekend.

Jill: You would do that anyway.

(Jill gets nostalgic for a moment, points out that changes to the festival site have by and large been good ones.)

Rob: I would like if they would put a speaker closer to the main beer tent.

Jill: That is a good note!… One complaint that Rob and I were just commenting on was the program, the list of artists doesn’t include when they’re playing, which is a huge issue.

I realize they’re trying to save paper and money by making it a smaller program, but when you have to keep flipping back and forth to find out where the artist you like is going to be performing, it’s basically not a very useful program.

And since you’re paying the same price for it, I think they should reconsider that.

Rob: I talked to one of the organizers and they said they’ve heard those complaints and they’re going to change it back next year.

Jill: I think they’re encouraging you to use the app, but when I come out here, I don’t want to be looking at my phone all the time, I want to be unplugged a little bit.

Rob: And I want to circle things. I can’t circle the app.

Jill: Rob you sound like an entirely old man. ‘You can’t circle the app!’ (in voice of an elderly woman)

Erin: Final thoughts? Was it a good year?

Jill: Very good year, I think. I think a lot of people thought it was a very low-key lineup, but again, looking back to 1992, and that’s what the folk festival used to be like. There wasn’t a number of huge names.

Barenaked Ladies and Richard Thompson were probably the biggest names at that festival — and Oysterband — and those are not, they’re not barn-burners or anything, it was just a good solid plate of music and that’s exactly what this year was like.

And tons of stuff to discover, which I always like. In this day and age when it’s so easy to hear any music you want, it’s very difficult to be surprised and excited, but there’s so much here that’s there always something you’re like, ‘Oh crap, this is fantastic.’

Rob: Yeah for me that’s what it’s about too. I like the day stuff the best, I never got into the whole tarp thing for Main Stage. Going around and checking out new music… the day stuff is the best stuff.

Jill: I think it’s been a good year for that. And I like Sunday the best because I like to see the bands that I know I’m gonna like earlier, and then on Sunday I can just wander around and check stuff out and this morning I saw Wesli, who is a Haitian-born guy, on Snowberry, and was so joyful and awesome, and it was a super small crowd but everyone was dancing and smiling, and I just love that.

That’s my folk festival happy feeling; just seeing a strange band playing awesome music and dancing and smiling.

Not that I danced, because that’s not me… but I thought about it.

erin.lebar@freepress.mb.ca

jill.wilson@freepress.mb.ca

rob.williams@freepress.mb.ca