Folk Festival 2023: some picks, links and a guide for noobs

Folk Festival twilight, 2016, by bev davies

So are we ready for the folk festival? The one that almost didn't happen? 

Considering the imperiled status of the fest this year, there are some remarkable performers lined up. Erika and I went through some of the options and made our picks; I'll be plowing over from work as quickly as I can, later today, then she'll join me tomorrow for the day. If you missed it, you can see my coverage of my first-time attendance at the folk fest last year, here, here, and here. I was very impressed! 

Before I get to the fest itself, note that tickets are shockingly reasonable, even with advance ticket options having expired as of midnight this past night; a single adult pays $140 at the gate for one day, or $250 for the whole weekend, with discounts in effect for students and seniors. My friend David M. has long satirized the cost of going to the folk festival with his "Rich Folk Festival" (happening this August at Queen's Park in New West), but suddenly $250 for three days' worth of music just doesn't seem that unreasonable, when single tickets to see some New Jersey millionaire sing songs about the working class are selling for a couple thousand bucks or more. 

How it works: there are three stages going on. The main stage has the big acts in the evening, with 'tweeners between, keeping the crowd entertained while bands set up. But during the day, there are also "workshops," which are a bit misleadingly titled, since workshops to me suggest someone learning to play an instrument. Really, what you get are three or more of the festival's artists doing loosely-themed concerts that may have them interacting with each other, but also could just be an alternating series of unrelated songs: now this person sings a song, now that person sings a song, now the other, then back to the first. 

Rich Hope by bev davies, Commodore Ballroom November 20th, 2009

There is some process of selection involved: for example, on Saturday morning, from 11 til noon, on the East Stage, at one end of the park, you will have "The Storytellers" workshop, with Joe Henry, Joey Burns of Calexico, Ireland's Susan O'Neill, and 1980s out-lesbian folk icon Ferron alternating and maybe interacting, with Henry serving as the "host" of the set. But you could also choose to see on the West Stage, during the same window, the "Heart Full of Soul" set; the theme is loose enough that you might get soul music, but you might also get a Yardbirds cover - my impression is it's really left up to the artists to interpret. That set involves Rich Hope (the man most likely to bring the Yardbirds?), the very Daptone-esque Seattle band True Loves (who also close Saturday night with a big dance party at the main stage), soulful, Indigenous-Music-Award-winning singer Celeigh Cardinal, and Amythyst Kiah, whose span of genres makes her music difficult to describe; "Black Myself" is a soulful, funky blues-rocker with a righteously pissed-off political edge, while "Wild Turkey" is a haunting folk song about her mother's death by drowning. Kiah is one of my big picks for the weekend, and the first album I plan to go shopping for as soon as the merch tent opens. Might even try to talk to her! 

Therein lies the rub: There is no way to see both concerts in full: you must choose. But that's where you have to kind of factor in the rest of the weekend and maybe do a bit of homework and puzzling-out: I will be seeing Amythyst Kiah tonight at 6pm - she's one of my picks! - and have seen Rich Hope a dozen times, while I have hopes to interview Ferron, whom I've never seen (and own three records by, including her private- press second LP, Backed Up, featuring my friend Stephen Nikleva). Further, I am told that Joe Henry is one of the must sees this weekend, so for me, the obvious choice is the Ferron/ Joe Henry event. Erika, on the other hand, will be seeing Ferron later that day (also one of her picks, but she doesn't need to see her twice that day!), but missing Amythyst Kiah today, since Erika is only there for the Saturday. She really wants to see her, though - like Alabama Shakes, Frazey Ford, and Allison Russell, Kiah's music gets a big "hell YES" from both Erika and myself, an instance of that elusive common ground that we're always happy, as a couple, to discover. Because I know I want to go to the East Stage, and she knows she wants to see Amythyst, we're not even risking complicating things by exploring what Jocelyn Pettit and Ellen Gira might be doing at the South stage (seen here with Adam Dobres - whom Erika knows from much-missed Vancouver Island unit Outlaw Social, doing Quebec/ Cape Breton reels). That happens during that same window: you can't see EVERYTHING, even if you want to. But we might get to see a song or two of theirs at the "Fiddle This" workshop back at the East Stage at 1:15, before rushing off to Ruby Singh & the Future Ancestors (note: it's not Ruby Kaur! Ruby's a dude). 

So Amythyst Kiah, Ferron, Ruby Singh, and Joe Henry are all picks, but speaking strictly of Saturday, Erika and I are also keen to see Twin Flames, William Prince, and Tiny Habits (who have some of the most gorgeous vocal harmonies we've heard in awhile; harmony is the theme of a south stage workshop Saturday that we'll be catching some of). There's a slightly staggered set between that Harmony Workshop and the Ruby Singh set, which may also allow us to see at least a couple of songs in the afternoon by Joachim Cooder, Ry's kid, also on the south stage. After that, we will pick between Tiny Habits and Celeigh Cardinal, linked previously who will we have each seen a bit of, and Ruth Moody, who we won't have seen at all (speaking of New Jersey millionaires, here she is covering "Dancing in the Dark"). Then it's Africa's Blick Bassy, who also immediately intrigues Erika and myself, touring through links, though we're not entirely sure how to describe what he does; his Bandcamp page describes his music as "a remarkable mix of Central and West African styles - including Malian griot music - blended with samba and soul," infused with his exposure to Gilberto Gil, Marvin Gaye and Nat 'King' Cole, but that first video I linked sounds like none of that, so... what could his set actually sound like? We don't know, but we're keen to find out. We can then follow Blick from the East Stage to the South Stage for the "Globetrotters" set, a clearly world-music themed mini-concert hosted by Vancouver's own Gord Grdina. 

It's less complex for the evening shows: there's just one big stage, with a huge sea of tarp-dwellers spread out in front of it, with main acts of various stripes. I'm curious indeed about this American Beauties Grateful Dead tribute, with an all-star cast of local and visiting musicians, including, according to the website, "Jim Byrnes, Steve Dawson, Rich Hope, Maya de Vitry, Ruth Moody, Joachim Cooder, Khari Wendell McClelland, Krystle dos Santos and Samantha Parton," many of whom have their own sets during the fest, backed by "Scott Smith (guitar), Liam McDonald (percussion), Saffron Henderson (backing vocals), Leon Power (drums), Sam Howard (bass), [and] Darryl Havers (keyboards)." It could be great, but it's the biggest wild card of Saturday, for me. What will it be like to hear Jim Byrnes and Rich Hope sing Grateful Dead songs? Who will do "Friend of the Devil," my favourite song on that album...? I cannot predict whether I will be blown away or put off, but the great thing about the folk fest, between the merch tents, the food trucks, the expansive grassy hills and shaded areas and benches-by-ponds and places where you can just sit and socialize with people you only see once a year... you can AFFORD to miss a set; there's plenty else to do.

But we won't be missing True Loves. I was exhausted last year and blew off Five Alarm Funk, but this year, unless the cat completely screws with my sleep on Saturday morning, I'm gonna stick around to dance!  

There's a lot more I'm keen to see. I'm not going to be able to make today's opener, Bowen Island's the High Bar Gang, pictured below, but they play again on Sunday, so that's some consolation. I might be able to make it to Cedric Watson and Jourdan Thibodeaux at 5, though, if the crush at the gate isn't overwhelming. Or do I want to do see the Twin Flames set, or Jim Byrnes? I've never seen Jim Byrnes. I mean, I'm not much of a straight-up blues guy, but maybe I should see him just once? Hmmm...

That's it. Hope the links were helpful. I will have more to come over the next week. I've only linked to about half the artists performing, so good luck with your own explorations...! Wear sunscreen, and as David M. advises on Facebook, pack a hat! 

Drone shot of 2022 festival by Say Sheila (?)