Organizer: Folk Fest took ‘more chances.’
Big names mingle with new discoveries
The wind picks up and Terry Wickham looks off to the side and doesn’t speak for a moment, thinking about his friend Don Snider.
The production manager died in November after a twoyear battle with cancer after a 23-year-tenure on the Hill. When Snider stood onstage on Sunday at the Folk Fest last year, saying he’d see us again, a palpable wave of emotion went through the volunteer and production crowd, everything going out of focus with welling tears. The thing is, Snider is still here — in both a sanctioned banner and a wonderful piece of Snider graffiti reading “never quit,” with everyone in administration pretending on the record that it is anonymously painted.
But the more important way gregarious Snider persists is the fact there’s a “here” we all know so well, a sprawling, living machine of striped tents, gleaming lights and 2,200 volunteers. As producer Wickham puts it: “On a production level, Don obviously left a great crew. And they were inspired, and it inspired us to make a lot of great investments, like a new trailer for the kitchen. Little things like that boost the morale of the volunteers.”
“We’re taking any surplus we have and moving across the site. We need to do an electrical upgrade so we have more power on the mainstage; there’s a warehouse upgrade. And Don, one day when I went over and he just wanted to talk business and I tried to shift him away from it, and the more he talked the more I thought, ‘Why am I putting more money in the endowment fund?’ We need to put money back into the show and back into production.” The “new” money from seniors tickets will go into the rainy-day fund, which guarantees the festival a stable backbone.
Sixty-five acts this year included well-known performers like Feist, Bruce Cockburn and Loreena McKennitt, and lesser-known acts like Havana d’Primera and the awesome Bob Dylan-looking LP.
Fatoumata Diawara makes music as beautiful as she is.
The Ivory Coast-born, Maliraised and Paris-based singer said she was having a lovely time here in Edmonton, noting, “I was surprised by the number of women playing. It is wonderful to be in a place where this is the case. It gives me hope and encouragement.”
Charles Bradley’s off-site set at the Empress is already an echoing legend, the John Butler Trio were on fire Friday night. k.d. lang wandered through the crowd, a guest of the festival.
“People always second guess the lineup, and I get that,” says Wickham. “People say, ‘there’s only 10 bands I really want to see.’ But I just go, ‘Now you’ve listened to all 65, right?”
“We took some more chances. Like LP? I’m not saying that’s folk music, but what she did over at Stage 6 with ukulele was.”
This was Jay Wispinski’s first time volunteering for the Folk Fest, though he’s come here for years. As an on-site, on-call bicycle technician, Wispinski’s position — which mirrors his real-life career — shows just how incredibly detailed and thorough the festival’s structure gets, even on its edges. “I fixed a flat this morning,” the 42-year-old says. “I expect probably about a dozen more tonight. I’ve always just come here for the beer, but it’s fun to help out.” Snider used to get Wispinski his tickets, “but that ain’t happening any more, unless he does it from the afterlife.”
Asked what his favourite part of the festival is, he says, laughing, “The lineups — put that in the paper.”
Wickham is smiling, it’s Sunday, and things have gone well.
“This is a hope and a dream. This show is getting deeper and more sophisticated. I knew I had a tiger by the tail, especially around 1994. My job I learned years ago is to make enough money on the show to give them the tools they need to do a really good job.