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Forty Years of Folk Fest

Posted: 1:42 PM CDT Tuesday, Jul. 9, 2013

The Winnipeg Folk Festival celebrates its 40th year running in 2013, and the Free Press has been there since Day 1. Here are a collection of photos from the earliest days to today, commemorating the past four decades of festivities at Birds Hill Park and the community that resulted.

FORTY YEARS OF FOLK FEST — Performers on stage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on July 6, 1983. (DAVE LANDRY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A sea of people came to watch and listen at the Main Stage on a Friday evening, July 14, 1980. 30,000 people were expected to attend the festival that weekend. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A square dancing workshop at the Folk Festival on August 15, 1979. (PAUL DELESKE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Artis the Spoon Man blows bubbles at the audience from the Main Stage of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. Artis, of Seattle, Wash., is one of many performers who travelled to Winnipeg to take part in the 10th annual festival on July 10, 1983. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Berne Thury from Minneapolis, Minnesota relaxes at the Main Stage on July 9, 1983. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Al Simmons, in usual sedate attire, gives a child a lift on his horse bike on July 17, 1984. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Heat failed to deter faithful festival-goers on July 10, 1976. (DAVE JOHNSON / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
This aerial view shows some of the thousands of folk 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 / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Nicholas Laporte, 4, gives his mother Mette a hand with a foot wash during the Winnipeg Folk Festival on Saturday afternoon, July 9, 1983. (STU PHILLIPS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
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 / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Festival-goers find refuge from the heat during the Folk Festival on July 9, 1983. (STU PHILLIPS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Aerial view of the Winnipeg Folk Festival grounds on July 11, 1977. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Folks (left to right) Sandy Anderson and husband Gene, from Frazee, Minnesota, keep dry beneath a canvas during a downpour at the 1984 Winnipeg Folk Festival, while son Mitch sits on the ground at centre. (KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A festival goer sits on the Winnipeg Folk Festival grounds on July 14, 1980. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
The Winnipeg Folk Festival in 1983. (WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
David Essig performs at a workshop at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on July 11, 1986. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
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 / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
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. John Radcliffe monitors the young traveller's progress. July 12, 1986. (PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A family attempts to beat the heat on July 12, 1982. (JIM WILEY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Kevin Muir blows giant bubbles while sister Carolyn watches on July 8, 1988. (DAVE JOHNSON / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Eight year old Ariana Histed plays in the crowds with a twirling ribbon at the Folk Festival on July 9, 2004. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Festival volunteers Kim Flynn and Sam Owens take a break from the heat during the Winnipeg Folk Festival on a Friday afternoon at Birds Hill Park on July 7, 2005. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Twin eight-year-old brothers Ethan and Kieran Wiebe practice their hand stands prior to Beth Orton performing at the Winnipeg Folk Festival at Birds Hill Park on Friday, July 6, 2012. (TREVOR HAGAN / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Two women dance in the mud at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on a Sunday evening, July 10, 2005. (BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
Angus Grant of Shooglenifty from Scotland jams with groups Tabache and Wild Mountain Time on a Sunday afternoon at the Winnipeg Folk Festival at Birds Hill Park. July 09, 2000. (JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
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 04, 2012. (RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)
A festival-goer plays with devil sticks as the sun sets on the second last day of the 2012 Winnipeg Folk Festival on Saturday, July 07, 2012. (MELISSA TAIT / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) (Melissa Tait)
The sun sets on the last day of the Winnipeg Folk Festival on Sunday, July 8, 2012. (JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS) (Winnipeg Free Press)

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