Winnipeg Folk Festival info

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 05/07/2012 (5189 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Where: Birds Hill Park, 34 kilometres north of downtown Winnipeg on Highway 59.

When: Wednesday until Sunday.

Tickets: Available at Ticketmaster or gate.

Festival passes (including service fees and taxes):

• $251 for adults,
• $146 for seniors (65+) and youths (15-17), 
• $23 for children (5-14).

Daily passes:

• adults $62 Thursday, $86 Friday-Sunday;
• youths/seniors $49 Thursday/$67 Friday-Sunday;
• children $8 Thursday, $10 Friday-Sunday.

Park fees: After two free years the province has once again implemented park fees for 2012. A daily pass is $4, a three-day pass is $8 and a seasonal pass is $30. Bring cash money: the Birds Hill Park office only takes cash for passes. The gates do not have the ability to accept debit or credit cards.

Stages: Seven daytime stages, two evening stages (Note: the Big Blue @ Night stage only operates Friday to Sunday). Stages in the Hand-Made Village and music store tent offer additional performances and demonstrations.

Times: All mainstage shows start at 6 p.m. and end between midnight and 1 a.m. Music at the Big Blue @ Night stage begins at 7:30 p.m. Friday to Sunday. Daytime programming begins at 11 a.m. Friday to Sunday.

Gates: Festival gates open at 5 p.m. today and 10 a.m. Friday to Sunday.

Mainstage tarp procedures: Seating begins 10 minutes after gates open; later if the ground is too wet.

For areas closest to the stage, a limited number of tarp tickets are distributed at the main gate at 4 p.m. today and 8 a.m. Friday to Sunday. The tickets determine the order of the first people to be allowed to put their tarps down. The maximum tarp size is 2.5 x 3 metres (8 x 10 feet).

Dancing: With the tarps taking up most of the field, dancers are relegated to stage left/house right and behind the sound booth. Big Blue @ Night is an all-dancing, no-tarp stage.

Chair rule: Chairs should be 60 centimetres (two feet) high or less. People in chairs higher than that must sit in a designated area to the left of the stage.

Volunteers: 2,900

Attendance in 2001: 59,553

No car? No problem: Winnipeg Transit operates a free shuttle bus — the Festival Express — to and from the festival, beginning today at 4 p.m. and at 10 a.m. the rest of the festival. The bus departs hourly from York and Memorial with stops along Graham Avenue and Main Street by city hall. All camping and/or day gear is allowed, but bikes are not. For more information, call 311.

Bikes: Lock up your bikes at racks located near main gate. Olympia Cycle & Ski is hosting a free bike repair and maintenance station in the area.

Website: winnipegfolkfestival.ca