Folk Festival set to grow in 2019

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This article was published 01/10/2018 (1640 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Music lovers can mark Aug. 23 to 25 on their 2019 calendars as the dates for the Whoop & Hollar Folk Festival held on Linda and Mitchell Omichinski’s property near Portage la Prairie.

“We now have momentum going,” said Linda, the festival’s co-ordinator. “This is something to check out.”

For the past six years the festival has been held on a single day, so the move to carry it over a Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday is a big step.

Omichinski and the other volunteer organizers are promoting the festival year-round and spreading the word at other music festivals.

She is very happy about a recent announcement by the RM of Portage la Prairie naming the Whoop & Hollar Folk Festival as its signature event for 2019.

“We’re honoured to have the municipality designate our event as its signature event for 2019,” Omichinski said.

She added that the designation will support festival organizers’ efforts to find funding for the coming year’s extended festival.

“It puts us more on the map. It raises our profile.”

Omichinski said a longer festival means a greater demand for volunteers.
“We have a good volunteer base who come back year after year, but we will need more people.”

She said the number of people using the festival campground increased greatly for this year’s festival, but there’s still plenty of room for expansion in the campground area.

For more information on the Whoop & Hollar Folk Festival, see https://whoopandhollar.com

Andrea Geary
St. Vital community correspondent

Andrea Geary is a community correspondent for St. Vital and was once the community journalist for The Headliner.

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