Longtime volunteer 'beyond excited' as Winnipeg Folk Fest begins after 2-year pandemic hiatus
Ticket sales for 4-day fest are on pace with the record-setting 2019 event, executive director says
After a two-year hiatus, organizers and volunteers behind the iconic Winnipeg Folk Festival are eager to welcome thousands of fans back to Birds Hill Provincial Park.
It all begins Thursday and runs until Sunday at the park just north of the city.
"Just being on the site with all those people again and listening to live music — the whole essence of being there, I think, is really difficult to describe," said festival executive director Lynne Skromeda.
"But you know it when you feel it, and just having that feeling back is going to be the best thing ever."
There was some concern during the 2022 festival's planning stages about whether people would be ready to return to large gatherings, but ticket sales have been excellent, she said.
"We're pretty much on par with where we were in like the 2018, 2019 years — and 2019 was our best year ever," with a cumulative attendance of 76,000 visits.
Because the festival is outdoors and people can spread out, a COVID-19 vaccine mandate for audience members has been dropped, Skromeda said. However, it remains in place for staff, volunteers, board members, performers, backstage guests, vendors and media.
"We wanted to keep the artists in as safe an atmosphere as possible, and they're the ones that are interacting with these folks the most," Skromeda said in an interview.
For the first time, the festival has been granted a site-wide liquor licence, which will also let people spread out and reduce congestion in the festival's taverns, she said.
"I think we've done it the right way, because the people who want to be … out in the general area are fine, and the people who need to be backstage will be fine too."
Like Skromeda, Candice Masters, a festival volunteer for more than 40 years, is overjoyed the event is back.
"I'm just beyond excited. I'm out at the site now and it's just, my heart's bursting with joy — lots of hugs with lots of old friends," she said in an interview Wednesday. "It's just spectacular. It's magic."
Masters described herself as "a rock chick" who knew little about folk music when she was dragged out by her sister to volunteer for the first time more than four decades ago.
"And it was just an instant love affair. It was just so magical, such amazing people, such fabulous music," she said. "It's just something that you couldn't pay me to give up."
For those new to the festival, Masters offers this advice: "Give yourself the privilege of experiencing all the different kinds of music that you can have here, because that's one of the things that keeps people coming back. So just keep your mind open, wander around, smile at people and have fun."
There are more than 70 acts in this year's lineup and Masters says she looking forward to seeing Dervish, an Irish traditional music group.
"You can't can't go wrong with good Celtic music," she said, then added Canadian rockers The Strumbellas and singer-songwriter Judy Collins, "an icon" with a career spanning seven decades, to her personal list.
Masters is being honoured this year with the Glass Banjo Award, given by the festival's board to a volunteer who has made significant contributions over the years.
"I'm very, obviously, honoured and humbled, because … every volunteer is integral to the running of the festival," Masters said. "To be singled out this year is very, very heartwarming, and I'm just ecstatic about it."
Winnipeg band kicks off main stage
Three-piece Winnipeg roots-pop group Sweet Alibi kicked off the main stage this year. It was a long time coming for the band's debut on the main stage as they were originally asked to perform in 2020, but the festival was cancelled due to the pandemic.
Jess Rae Ayre from Sweet Alibi says she has been coming to Folk Fest since she was a child, saying it's "beyond exciting" her band was asked to perform on the main stage.
"If feels, honestly, kind of like home. We grew up at this festival, it's been … a long time coming for a few years, and you can feel the energy of everybody here and the excitement," said Rae Ayre.
"It's comforting and really exciting at the same time."
Changes at Folk Fest
Over those years, Masters says the joy and the quality of music has never ceased — but some things have changed.
"There was a time where there was no such thing as a telephone on site," she said.
"There was no picking up a phone saying, ''help, I forgot this' or 'help, I need that.' It was a note written, put on a school bus, sent to the hotel. The hotel would do whatever is on the note, if they could, put everything back on the bus and send it back to the site."
That could mean hours in turnaround time, she said.
"So nothing was urgent, because it couldn't be."
This year, the festival is tapping into the improved access to technology at the site. Debit and credit cards will be accepted for drink tickets, merchandise and other purchases.
Admission tickets are only available online — not at the gates — which Skromeda said will help with COVID prevention.
"[The old ticket counters were] another spot that we tend to see a lot of congregation, a lot of congestion and potentially bottlenecks as well," she said, adding most people now say they prefer buying tickets online.
There are also a couple of other thing that never change with an outdoor festival: the risk of extreme weather and extremely hungry mosquitoes.
'Come prepared'
The festival, with a focus on its natural surroundings, never fogs the site with chemicals to banish the 'skitters.
"We kind of just have to live with it the way it is. We just sort of recommend that people come prepared.… Bug spray or just even long sleeves and long pants can be helpful in the evenings, because it's really the dawn and the dusk part [where they come out]," Skromeda said.
"But there are so many people [for the mosquitoes] to choose from I think we're going to spread it out, right?"
As for the weather, the forecast calls for highs of 27 C and 30 C over the next couple of days, but a chance of rain overnight and possibly more rain on Sunday.
"It's the way that this year has been turning out to be. You just gotta be prepared for anything," Skromeda said.
"But one thing I can tell you is that the music on the stages is going to be amazing, and so are all the people out there."
Corrections
- An earlier version of this story said the festival runs until Saturday. In fact, it runs until Sunday.Jul 07, 2022 1:50 PM CT
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With files from Faith Fundal and Jim Agapito