The Vancouver Folk Music Festival: One Magic Summer Weekend
VANCOUVER - The Vancouver Folk Music Festival is a world of music on the beach for one magic weekend every summer. Musicians, dancers, poets and singers from around the world and across the street gather at beautiful Jericho Beach Park on July 14-16, for Vancouver's 29th annual celebration of traditional and contemporary folk and roots music.
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival has established itself as a major event on the world folk and roots music circuit. This summer celebration challenges audiences to expand their understanding and appreciation of what “folk” can mean in a global context, brings attention to exciting young artists who are pushing the boundaries, honours the elders of the tradition, and creates new zones for experimentation, improvisation and education.
The Vancouver Folk Music Festival features more than 70 hours of music on eight outdoor stages – three evenings of mainstage concerts and two full days of performances throughout the park.
Programming highlights of the 2006 Festival will include debut appearances by Montreal's eight-member afro-beat crew Afrodizz, tradition pioneers The New Lost City Ramblers and Zar, a young band blending Danish and Celtic traditions.
Returning to the festival are long-time favourites such as Dan Bern, bringing a punk perspective to folk, Ruthie Foster weaving her roots in blues and gospel into music that can fill an entire festival, James Keelaghan, one of Canada's finest balladeers, and of course the festival's beloved godfather, Utah Phillips.
Other festival attractions include a food area with vendors serving up foods from around the world, an artists' marketplace featuring the unique works of local artisans and craftspeople, and a little folks area with special programming the whole family can enjoy together.
All of this takes place in one of the most spectacular outdoor settings imaginable, Jericho Beach Park, amidst groves of pine and cedar trees and against a backdrop of the beautiful coast mountains rising above a modern city skyline.
Special programming features and events during the Festival Week will take the Festival and its guest artists out into the community. This will bring artists together from different traditions for several days prior to the Festival Weekend to enable them to spark one another's creativity and imagine the unimaginable.
The Festival Road Show will see artists touring city neighbourhoods, giving impromptu performances from the back of a flatbed truck during the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of the Festival Week.
The appearance of many Festival guest artists at other venues around town in the days before and after the Festival Weekend create a unique city-wide folk and roots celebration.
And it all kicks off with a free concert in Grandview Park on July 12, followed by a series of four great shows at Rime on Commercial Drive.
Adult Advance Weekend Tickets are $125 until 4 PM on June 17 and are available through the Festival office at (604) 602-9798 or 800-883-3655 and online at www.thefestival.bc.ca.
Tickets for students, youths, elders and little folk are available at a range of prices for weekend passes and single day admissions.
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