Edmonton Folk Music Festival

A Weekend of Music and Fun

I volunteered at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival recently and enjoyed seeing people from my crew again and enjoyed listening to new artists that were previously unfamiliar to me as well as seeing some familiar ones. I came away from the experience feeling creatively and spiritually inspired. Here are some shots from the weekend.

Here’s from behind the scenes in the kitchen where food is prepared and served up to over 2,000 people per meal at the peak of the festival.

the food is fresh and delicious.

And outside, facing the hill.The stages all face hills in the ski club in the middle of the city..

Some of the musicians Oysterband and Mike Farris

The light of the hoops at night.

Final Act of theFirst Evening with the City in Background

August 14, 2015 | Categories: Photo Blog | Tags: Alberta, Canon EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM, Edmonton, Edmonton Folk Music Festival, inspiration, RebelXS, summer | 2 Comments

Now that was a Weekend!

My apologies for not getting to your blogs or commenting on them, just had to skip a few days for other duties. I volunteer at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and have been doing so for about fifteen years.The only years missed during that period was when I was out of town and my job would not give me the time off and last year due to illness. But they welcomed me back, thankfully and it was fun. The perks? Getting fed delicious gourmet meals the whole time, a t-shirt of good quality, free admission, and parties with some of the bands from the festival playing. I just don’t have the energy for all the parties anymore ( I used to go to them all) and I would have loved to go to Sunday’s but just had no energy left. But I did go to Saturday’s party and sang in the acoustic room with other folk enthusiasts then danced away to the Johnny Clegg band and Parachute Club (forgot about my arthritis).

I loved seeing favourites like Amadou & Mariam, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Emmy Lou Harris, Arlo Guthrie Family Reunion,Hills to Hollers with Linda Tillery, Barbara Higbie and Laurie Lewis and Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Mavis Staples. New to me in that I heard them for the first time were Andrea House, Pokey Lafarge, Joanne Shenandoah, Monkey Junk and James Vincent McMorrow. But the best was the headliner, the wonderful powerful Bonnie Raitt. She put on such a show and was pulling her favourite musicians on stage with her and obviously having a blast and so were 20,000+ more of us. Welcome back Bonnie! I have no photos of her because it was requested that no photos be taken and I had taken some when she joined with Mavis but removed them out of respect and they were poor shots anyway.They are etched in my mind’s eye.

Here are some photos to give you a taste of the festivities. They were all taken using my Canon 70-300mm lens and no editing has been done yet.