Hooray! Andrea and I received our acceptance letter from the
Winnipeg Folk Festival last night. We're so pumped!
If you know Folk Fest, you`ll know why we're excited. 40-50,000 people over 4 days in a prairie-woodland park 45 minutes outside of Winnipeg, watching folk, funk, bluegrass, world traditional and contemporary reinterpretations on 6 daytime stages and one big evening mainstage. That's the nuts and bolts but the really amazing part is the great energy and community spirit that people share during the Fest - everyone is smiling, thousands of people are volunteering, there is very little conflict and the environmental impact is minimal for the size of the festival! (I've heard horror stories about other festivals being littered with a thick crust of discarded water bottles by day 2... At Folk Fest all food is served on reusable plates and you have to pay a deposit to get them back!)
Their artisan area is called Handmade Village and as you may imagine, it is a pleasure to display there and an honour to be selected (they re-jury every year). Hospitality volunteers even come around to feed you coffee and fresh fruit! And the attendees really respond to labour-intensive, one-of-a-kind handmade work in a way that I wish was more universal.
It isn't without its challenges - last year instead of the usual hot sun it gusted and rained and was around 10 degrees C for most of Friday and Saturday - but it's always an adventure and definitely our most anticipated show of the year. See you there!!!
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