Rain can’t dampen folk fest

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/07/2023 (1112 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Well before a concert-pausing evening rain storm, Larry Hochman’s 2023 Winnipeg Folk Festival started at 9:25 a.m. Thursday morning — a full seven and a half hours before the gates officially opened.

No, Hochman didn’t get the time wrong. His early arrival had purpose: to claim the first ticket for the first tarp shuffle of the weekend.

“Thursday night is the one I want to be first in line for,” Hochman said. “It doesn’t matter who’s playing.”

How did he spend the lengthy wait?

“Just relaxing and enjoying the day,” he said. The day only improved when tarp neighbour Gary Conway joined the line several hours later. “We only see each other here at folk fest.”

Hochman and Conway met in the tarp shuffle (a daily festival rush seating event) line more than 15 years ago. Their friendship is an annual affair, lasting only a few days.

“We’ve never done anything together outside of folk fest,” Conway said with a laugh.

Reunions, by way of enthusiastic hugs and warm hellos, were happening all over the festival grounds Thursday evening.

On the opposite side of the Main Stage field a group of fellow shufflers was cheering and exchanging high fives.

“I will never shuffle with another group — that was epic,” Kyle Schilley exclaimed while slapping hands with twin Keith and sibling friends Sampson and Emma Unruh.

The group approached the event in a sporting manner — carb-loading with pasta salad beforehand, choosing a strategic route and a preferred mode of transport. A “heavy skip,” according to Emma, is key.

The celebration would be short-lived. At 6:50 p.m., about two hours after the tarp shuffle, William Prince’s opening main stage performance was cut short after several songs due to the arrival of a thunderstorm.

”You’re going to be blessed by the rain,” Anishinaabe Elder Chickadee Richard remarked during her opening blessing as dark clouds rolled in. Fittingly, the blessing included a performance by the Leading Thunderbird Singers, a youth drumming and singing troupe.

Richard was right. Intermittent lightning and heavy rain sent the crowd scattering before the skies parted and the concert resumed more than an hour later.

The rain helped christen the folk festival’s new, larger main stage, which was built with 75 per cent recycled materials and includes lighting and audio upgrades, according to the organization. The venue’s large standalone screens have been replaced by a compact set attached to the stage.

Tweener Fontine took the stage to cheers from the slightly more subdued reassembled crowd. Joined by local musician friends Boy Golden and Leah Magnan, she played a single-song set due to the shortened evening schedule.

Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall followed, armed with a guitar, a live looping machine, no backing band and practiced stage presence. She played a few new tunes and shared a few charming stories in a brogue accent, before launching into her breakout 2005 hit, Big Black Horse and The Cherry Tree. The song — an apparent jazzercise hit in the States — brought the audience back to life with communal clapping and singing.

Winnipeg’s Kris Ulrich played a sweet but short tweeter set of songs from his debut 2023 album, Big in the USA.

“I don’t know if I’m ever going to be able to do this again,” perennial main stage host and CBC radio personality Tom Power said while introducing the evening’s closing act. “Please welcome to the stage, my favourite band, Fleet Foxes.”

The Seattle band — made up of Robin Pecknold, Skyler Skjelset, Casey Wescott, Christian Wargo and Morgan Henderson — kicked things off with an ethereal a capella number just as a second, less violent, batch of rain clouds started sprinkling the crowd post-sunset.

Singer Pecknold was in fine form, with his unique treble carrying into the night during hits Can I Believe You and Ragged Wood, from Fleet Foxes’ 2020 and 2008 releases, respectively.

At press time, the weather remained a going concern, with the 30 C-plus weather typical of the folk fest weekend nowhere to be seen in the forecast.

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

Twitter: @evawasney

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