Winnipeg Folk Festival – Separation Anxiety

July 20th, 2010 | Posted by Jacquie Crone
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The Winnipeg Folk Festival was bang-on this year, wasn’t it? I have a funny vision of diehard fans lovingly folding their tie-dye muscle shirts and too-short, short-shorts and storing them at the back of the closet until next year. Why, I’m even contemplating shaving my legs. It’s always hard to say goodbye. But never fear, the Festival Folks will be back in 2011 – eager and ready to celebrate their 38^th year.

Arrested Development

Still, what do you do about the withdrawal symptoms you’re feeling now? Maybe I can help by providing you with a few visuals to keep you company over the next 12 months.

Before I do that, however, I must confess that I wasn’t at the FF for the full 5-day love-in. Don’t condemn me as I had an excellent reason: I was on a different kind of an extravaganza, a “5-day Whirlwind” hiking tour of northern Manitoba (blog to follow).

Let’s pause for a minute and consider this: what is the significance of the number 5 this year??

Anyhow, I got back to Winnipeg late Friday and the FF had been in full swing since Wednesday evening. My house was silent as my partner was off representing the family out at the Bird’s Hill festival site. So I bathed – then slept. Saturday morning I was up early exchanging my hiking boots for flip-flops and the mosquito jacket and pants for a skimpy little number. Now I was seriously ready to engage in the 37^th Winnipeg Folk Festival.

My favourite thing about the fest (besides the tailgate party) is the daytime workshops. The stages: Big Blue, Snowberry, Green Ash, Little Stage, Shady Grove and Bur Oak, are on the hop from 11:00 a.m. until 5:30 p.m., offering up a bonanza of musical delights. The stages are tucked in amongst the trees (and poison ivy) and each band shell is strategically positioned so that the sound from one won’t filter over to another.

Workshops run concurrently, and this is where the $5.00 spent on a program separates the wheat from the chaff, the ‘A’ type personalities from the ‘B’ types – or the weenies from the sausages (huh?). A seasoned folkie will map out the day’s workshops as timing is paramount. It helps too if you happen to run with a pack of audiophiles because with so many choices and workshops (with titles like “Perfect Strangers” or “Stay Where You’re At And I’ll Come Where You’re Tu”), an ill-informed individual such as myself could get overwhelmed.

Bur Oak Stage

This year, thanks to Travel Manitoba and the Winnipeg Folk Festival, I was issued a very precious commodity: a media/press pass. The pass permitted me access to prime vantage points around the stages so I could get some decent photos. I tried to stay low, (here’s where my diminutive stature comes in handy), and I only got the stink-eye a few times.

As you can imagine, by adding a zoom lens to the equation I was right up there – witnessing first hand the intimate interaction between the performers on stage. I promise you that I am not a voyeur, but judging from the subtle looks and body language I saw on stage, musicians seem to really get off on the daytime workshops too.

Many of my friends are creative so over time I’ve noticed, (I did a survey), that artists thrive on friction, uncertainty, and the great unknown. How else do they keep their creative juices flowing? Workshops throw musicians together and kind of force them to sort it out for themselves – and we, the crowd, are the happy recipients of that union.

Sure, summer moves on, and so will you. Your attention will shift musically to the Neil Young solo acoustic concert, and artistically to the Fringe Fest. Then of course, we have our rural festivals to consider, like the World Lily Festival in Neepawa, the Austin Threshermen’s Reunion, the Sunflower Festival in Altona, Gimli’s Islendingadagurinn, and Morden’s Corn & Apple Festival. The list could go on and on, but I’ll resist the temptation.

Still, when a certain wind blows, or a tune drifts by on the radio, you’ll think longingly of this year’s Winnipeg Folk Festival – and that’s when the separation anxiety will rise to the surface. So come back to this site and wallow in the captured images. After all, you deserve to enjoy the photos; I may have been standing in front of you when I shot them!!

Hot Tuna

Gord Downie Pressure

Main Stage - Cat Empire

Alvin Youngblood Hart

Contemporary Dancers

Greg Brown

Folk Fest Tailgate party

Sonny Landreth

Gord Downie Sarah Harmer John K. Samson

Zero Gravity Circus - tall girl big beer

Bo Ramsey and Pieta Brown

Arrested Development

Delhi 2 Dublin

Pieta Brown

Folk Fan - cooked

Gord Downie smiles

Until Next Year

Please send me an email at jacquie.crone@gmail.com or, if you’re not shy, leave a comment for all of us to enjoy.