Outside Expectations at Winnipeg Folk Festival
The headline in the Winnipeg Sun we picked up for the long drive home on the Monday after the Winnipeg Folk Festival read “Solid meh+ for shindig. It had its moments, but …” Since my experience of the festival was anything but meh, here are some highlights, musical and otherwise, from the five-day event that left me feeling that yes, the festival had once again delivered on their marketing tagline, this year pitched as “Outside Expectations.”
Sublime song of the festival had to be k.d.lang singing Hallelujah on the Main Stage on Friday night. Never known quite so many people to have collectively and spontaneously held their breath for so long, as an almost eerie hush descended on the crowd. A video of a video is nothing like being there, but, to give you a taste,…
M. Ward singing Magic Trick on Main Stage (Fri). His entire set was energetic and dynamic, great songwriting, excellent band.
Despite the fact that I have never been much of a fan of Blue Rodeo, having known them only from previous festival appearances, and that I was unfamiliar with their album Five Days in July, which they had been invited to play in its entirety (clever idea!), their stripped down rendition of Dark Angel completely blew me away, and single-handedly vindicated Wed night at the Main Stage.
The outrageously ambitious workshop scheduling that brought Marco Calliari, Jaune Toujours, Beats Antique, and Swamp Ward Orchestra very cosily together on the Bur Oak stage, and the tremendously collaborative spirit with which the Jaune Toujours players united the bands. Life’s rich pageant, indeed.
Terrific to see so many getting into Beats Antique over at Big Blue on Saturday night—not only were the fans digging the music, there were also some amazing costumes. The Big Blue line-up had some great options this year, so much so that at times the Main Stage area felt a tad depleted of youthful energy.
Ray Wylie Hubbard was in unusually expansive mode at Little Stage on Sunday afternoon, but perhaps most touching was his song The Messenger (written in response to Ray’s reading Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke), complete with a curious dragonfly hanging on to every word.
Any festival with a hurdy-gurdy is OK with me, but one has to give bonus points for a BLUE hurdy-gurdy, as played by Alison Gowan of Swamp Ward Orchestra.
Other musical acts that impressed included Spiro, David Wax Museum, Shane Koyczan, The Once, Tom Fun Orchestra, Caladh Nua, Chuck Prophet, and Del McCoury Band mixing it up with the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. As always, there were many other acts I didn’t get to see…
Had to love the pair of aged hippies I spied in the Festival Campground, cavorting and splashing each other under one of the spigots, giggling with pleasure. At the other end of the age spectrum, it was wonderful to see so many children at the festival enjoying themselves. Winnipeg Folk Festival remains in great shape while it can continue to be a safe and welcoming environment for patrons of all ages and interests.
This piece of artwork situated near the Shady Grove stage was very appealing in its subtlety and in the way it meshed so perfectly with the local environment. In the course of a five day music festival filled with aural challenges, a few moments contemplation of visual art are restorative, and this aspect of the festival seems to be gaining in both momentum and quality.
Finally, and coincidentally a paraphrase of the name of one of the bands I didn’t see at the Festival (only because I had already seen and enjoyed them at the Cedar), Joy Kills Sorrow, the church billboard by the side of the road in Karlstad back across the border in Minnesota reminded returning festival-goers: One joy shatters many griefs. Consider this year’s Winnipeg Folk Festival as mission accomplished; a year’s worth of accumulated griefs shattered in five days. Surely if that is not outside expectations, what is?
