Tales of the Folk Fest

Baby love! How adorable? My darling boy is on the left and he is holding the hand of his newest buddy Usiah. We are settled in watching the main stage concert at the Winnipeg Folk Festival. We had a great time this year. The music was phenomenal, the company delightful, and the weather for the most part cooperated. We had one rainy day, Saturday, but we escaped the elements and retreated to a friend's hotel room (complete with jacuzzi). What every good camping trip needs.

For those not familiar with the festival it has been happening every July for the past 35 years. I have been in attendance of approx. 15. I love going and it is quite possibly the highlight of my year. This was Ezra's first of many to come.

The festival lasts 4 days and the music is from all over the world. Usually there is only a handful of artists I know, which makes it that much more fun because every year I learn of so many new, great musicians.

My highlights this year: Chic Gamine, Zorro in the Dark, Kathleen Edwards, Spider John Koerner, John Boutte, Joan Armatrading, Balkan Beat Box, Carrie Rodriguez, Shtreiml, and Justin Townes Earles.

This year was also the first in many that we did not camp in festival camping. Instead we went for the park campsites, complete with flush toilets and picnic tables. For those not in the know, festival camping is basically a field with some port oh johns where crazy hippies set up tents, teepees and the occasional pirate ship but never sleep.

I have enjoyed this in the past but feel like I made the right decision taking to the more family oriented park sites. Maybe next year...

A friend camping in festival did tell me a funny story of something he encountered just before sunrise one morning. A group of men decided to have a naked race and after stripping down found some ladies to sacrifice their scarves for a finish line. A bunch of bananas was offered as the prize. Just as the first runner bounded toward the suspended scarf a gorilla jumped out of nowhere and stole the bananas! (A man in a suit, of course.) So the group of naked men took off after the gorilla. This is a scene I find very amusing to ponder, but don't exactly regret not being there to witness it first hand.

What will next year bring? Hope to see you there!