Apart from spending a few minutes geocaching at the corner of Bronson and Slater, and a few minutes curled up in the Trailhead hammock with GC, I’ve been at the Folk Festival all weekend.
The weather has been surprisingly good, especially considering the forecast. The Folk Festival is the perfect size for running into people and I’ve run into lots of people. They don’t all read the blog, so some of them were shocked to see me in a wheelchair.
Speaking of the wheelchair, there are advantages and disadvantages to doing a festival in a wheelchair. One advantage is that GC, as my ‘aide’, got a free ticket. Another is that people tend to go out of their way to make things a little easier for us. For example, last night we were looking for a spot from which to watch the Good Lovelies and Bruce Cockburn. GC pushed me up an aisle, where a woman told us we couldn’t remain because they were keeping the aisles clear.
“Okay,” said GC, and prepared to turn the wheelchair around and look elsewhere. The sound booth was right beside us, and one of the sound men beckoned us over. He opened the gate and told us to come in and make ourselves comfortable. We ended up with a great, uncrowded view of the stage. It was so comfortable we both fell asleep during Bruce Cockburn’s concert. Thank you, nice man in the sound booth!
Every time I go to a Festival I like to come away with at least one new musical ‘find.’ Someone I’ve never heard of before, but whose music I discover I love. I found my 2009 Folk Festival find. It’s Terra Hazelton.
I saw her at the Blues & Beyond workshop yesterday with Ray Bonneville, Idy Oulo and Rich Warren. She’s a jazz singer. She’s got a terrific sense of humour, an instant rapport with her fellow musicians, and she knows how to bring the best out in an audience. The whole place got energized as soon as she arrived, which was ten minutes before the end of the workshop because her train was delayed.
She’ll be back today though, and so will I. I’m going to catch her on the Moon Stage at 1:00, with the Sing It, Sister workshop, featuring her, Penny Lang, the Good Lovelies and Radoslav Lorkovic. And she’ll also be at the dance tent at 4:30 for the Sunday Swingtacular: Terra Hazelton & Her Easy Answers.
Anyway, this year’s Folk Festival is working out so much better for us than last year’s Folk Festival.
Anybody else out there doing the Folk Festival this weekend? Are you having fun? What have you seen so far?
Who’ve I loved? David Ross MacDonald, our buddy from Oz, of course; Cockburn and the Lovelies were amazing, and saw James Keelaghan for the first time. He did not disappoint my high expectations.
Mihirangi from New Zealand did amazing things, and I also loved Victoria Vox. BobCat House concerts will have several of these folks coming up in 2009 and 2010 for sure.
Zoom, would love to meet you F2F – feel like I know you from this blog. Text me if you have a moment, or e-mail me, and perhaps I can buy you a coffee? Or a beer? Or just say hi.
B
Wasn’t the weather amazing this year? I am glad you enjoyed the inclusive atmosphere we are striving for.
I usually want to see all the acts in one time period if I check the schedule so I ignore it when I am ‘off duty’ and just wander around catching bits of acts, networking and saying hi to friends.
I was there. I’m too tired to be eloquent right now, but I had a fantastic time. All three of the headliners were fantastic, and the workshops were great, too. Particularly the Bruce Cockburn, Steven Page, Joel Plaskett and Ana Muira workshop from Sunday… it was rather magical. Major discoveries for us were probably Kinnie Starr and the Breakmen.
I didn’t go to a lot of the festival b/c of other events in my weekend, however I DID do the ukulele workshop, which was incredibly fun, and now I have a ukulele. I was sad about missing Ana Miura, because I love her music and her performances. However I did really enjoy two acts in particular: Vishten, an Acadian group with some infectious rhythms (my ‘find’); and Penny Lang with Jason Lang, a totally laid back performance with soul.
Bob, if I’d seen your comment before leaving for the festival on Sunday, I’d have suggested meeting up there. Rain check?
Reb, there were lots more wheelchairs there than usual….either that, or I just noticed them more this year since I’m in one!
David I missed that workshop, but it was okay because the women at the Sing It Sister workshop were very grateful to the 30 of us who showed up at their workshop instead of the other one. (And it was good!) I didn’t get to see Kinnie Starr, but I caught enough of a glimpse of the Breakmen to know I’d like to see more.
Jen, maybe you can answer this question for me then: Is Jason Lang Penny’s grandson? I did see them together in another workshop, and wondered. I wish I’d done the ukelele thing! Instead I wandered about all weekend singing “If you love the ukelele lady, the ukelele lady loves you…If you love to linger where it’s shady, the ukelele lady lingers too.”
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