Vancouver Folk Music Festival | |
---|---|
Genre | folk, world, singer-songwriter, bluegrass, hip hop |
Dates | third weekend of July |
Location(s) | Jericho Beach, Vancouver, BC, Canada |
Years active | 1978–present |
Website | thefestival |
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival (VFMF), founded in 1978, is an outdoor multistage music festival, located at Jericho Beach Park on the west side of Vancouver, British Columbia. It takes place annually on the third weekend of July, drawing over 30,000 attendees each year. [1] [2]
The festival has attracted artists from across the world, including Adam Cohen, Ani Difranco, Utah Phillips, Pete Seeger, Tuvan throat singers, Sarah Harmer, Veda Hille, Feist, K'naan, and Ferron, among many others.
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival was founded in 1978 by Mitch Podolak and Colin Gorrie, who also helped establish the Winnipeg Folk Festival; Ernie Fladell and Franz Fitzgibbon, employees at the City of Vancouver's social planning department; and Gary Cristall, who coordinated the event. [3] The inaugural festival took place from August 11 through 13, 1978 in Stanley Park, and an estimated 10,000 people were in attendance. [4] Performers included Mary McCaslin and Jim Ringer, Odetta, Stan Rogers. Leon Redbone, Leon Bibb, and John Hammond. [5]
In 1979, the event was changed to take place the third weekend of July at Jericho Beach. Late in the year, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society was established as a non-profit organization and given control of future versions of the festival. [3] In early years, the organization operated a dedicated record label called Festival Records. [6]
The 46th annual festival was held July 14–16, 2023. [7]
The 42nd annual festival was held July 19–21, 2019. [8] [9]
The 41st annual festival was held July 13–16, 2018. [10] [9]
The 40th annual festival was held July 13–16, 2017. [11] [12]
The 39th annual festival was held July 15–17, 2016.
The 38th annual festival was held July 17–19, 2015.
The 37th annual festival was held July 18–20, 2014.
The 36th annual festival was held July 19–21, 2013.
The 35th annual festival was held July 13–15, 2012.
The 34th annual festival was held July 15–17, 2011.
The 33rd annual festival was held July 16–18, 2010. Artists included:
The 32nd annual festival was held on July 17–19, 2009.
The 31st annual festival was held from July 18–20, 2008. Artists included:
The 30th annual festival was held from July 13–15, 2007.
The 29th annual VFMF was held from July 14–16, 2006.
The 1st annual festival was held August 11–13, 1978. [14]
A jug band is a band employing a jug player and a mix of conventional and homemade instruments. These homemade instruments are ordinary objects adapted to or modified for making sound, like the washtub bass, washboard, spoons, bones, stovepipe, jew's harp, and comb and tissue paper. The term 'jug band' is loosely used in referring to ensembles that also incorporate homemade instruments, but that are more accurately called skiffle bands, spasm bands, or juke bands because they do not include a jug player.
Ryland Peter Cooder is an American musician, songwriter, film score composer, record producer, and writer. He is a multi-instrumentalist but is best known for his slide guitar work, his interest in traditional music, and his collaborations with traditional musicians from many countries.
The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder George Wein, music manager Albert Grossman, and folk singers Pete Seeger, Theodore Bikel, and Oscar Brand. It was one of the first modern music festivals in America, and remains a focal point in the expanding genre of folk music. The festival was held in Newport annually from 1959 to 1969, except in 1961 and 1962, first at Freebody Park and then at Festival Field. In 1985, Wein revived the festival in Newport, where it has been held at Fort Adams State Park ever since.
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is a nonprofit charitable organization with an annual summer folk music festival held in Birds Hill Provincial Park, near Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The festival features a variety of artists and music from around the world and is sure to include a number of local artists.
The New Lost City Ramblers, or NLCR, was an American contemporary old-time string band that formed in New York City in 1958 during the folk revival. Mike Seeger, John Cohen and Tom Paley were its founding members. Tracy Schwarz replaced Paley, who left the group in 1962. Seeger died of cancer in 2009, Paley died in 2017, and Cohen died in 2019. NLCR participated in the old-time music revival, and directly influenced many later musicians.
Ferron Foisy is a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada's most respected songwriters, Ferron, who is openly lesbian, became one of the earliest and most influential lyrical songwriters of the women's music circuit, and an important influence on later musicians such as Ani DiFranco, Mary Gauthier and the Indigo Girls. From the mid-eighties on, Ferron's songwriting talents have been recognized and appreciated by music critics and broader audiences, with comparisons being made to the writing talents of Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, and Leonard Cohen.
Northern Lights Festival Boréal is an annual summer music festival in Sudbury, Ontario. It is one of Canada's oldest continuous music festivals, having been staged every year since 1972 until the COVID-19 pandemic.
Howard Bilerman is a Canadian musician, sound engineer, and record producer based in Montreal, Quebec. He co-owns the hotel2tango recording studio, and played drums for the band Arcade Fire.
Mike Seeger was an American folk musician and folklorist. He was a distinctive singer and an accomplished musician who mainly played autoharp, banjo, fiddle, dulcimer, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, dobro, jaw harp, and pan pipes. Seeger, a half-brother of Pete Seeger, produced more than 30 documentary recordings, and performed in more than 40 other recordings. He desired to make known the caretakers of culture that inspired and taught him. He was posthumously inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2018.
The Hillside Festival is an annual three-day, five-stage summer festival occurring in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, hosting musicians, spoken word artists, workshops and more. The Hillside Festival occurs in late July on Guelph Lake Island.
Geoff Berner is a Canadian singer, songwriter, and musician from Vancouver.
Musikfest is an American music festival that has been held annually since 1984 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania. It is the nation's largest non-gated free music festival. The festival begins on the first Friday in August, though it has been preceded since 2015 with a Thursday preview night involving the premium stage and adjacent areas. The festival ends the second Sunday thereafter.
FloydFest is a Music and arts festival held annually near Floyd, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Sugar Hill Records is an American bluegrass and Americana record label.
Daniel Mangan is a Canadian musician. He has won two Juno awards and has toured extensively throughout North America, Europe and Australia, having released 5 studio LPs and numerous EPs and singles. He has scored for feature film, as well as television for Netflix and AMC. He is also a co-founder of Side Door, a marketplace platform connecting artists with alternative venue spaces for in-person & online shows.
Jim Causley is a British folk singer, songwriter, and musician from Devon who specializes in the traditional songs and music of the West Country. Journalist Colin Irwin has called him "the finest singer of his generation".
Barbara Josephine Bulat, known professionally as Basia Bulat, is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. She is known for performing with an autoharp.
Black Hen Music is a Canadian independent record label founded in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1995. The music label was established by record producer and musician Steve Dawson of the band Zubot and Dawson. Black Hen Music began releasing albums in 1996 and is distributed in Canada by Fontana North, in Europe and the UK by Continental Record Services, and in the US by Burnside Distribution.
The London Ontario Live Arts Festival also known as LOLA Fest, was an arts festival which took place in downtown London, Ontario, Canada, in the third week of September, from 2006 to 2010. It began as a one-day street festival in 2006 and expanded to the three-day format in 2007. The festival was founded by Andrew Francis; LOLA 2007 and LOLA 2008 were curated by Ian Doig-Phaneuf (music) and Paul Walde.
E.S.L. is a Canadian folk pop band from Vancouver, British Columbia. The current lineup is Marta Jaciubek-McKeever, Diona Davies, Tess Kitchen and Joy Mullen. The members have varied backgrounds that include playing with the "Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, punk bands, pop bands, hip hop and beyond."