Calgary Folk Music Festival
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The Calgary Folk Music Festival (also known as "Calgary Folk Fest", or CFMF) is held on the fourth weekend of July each year at Prince's Island Park, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.[1] The four-day event features 70 artists from over 15 countries, who perform for an audience of over 52,000 people across multiple stages.[2]
Due to the festival's inclusion of a wide spectrum of genres, it has been able to attract a diverse array of notable artists, such as Father John Misty, Neko Case, Julia Jacklin, the Avett Brothers, David Byrne, Elvis Costello, Emmylou Harris, Andrew Bird, and Tanya Tagaq.[2][3]
The 45th annual Calgary Folk Music Festival will take place July 25-28, 2024.[4]
Workshops[edit]
A popular feature of the Calgary Folk Music Festival is the inclusion of workshops into its programming. Workshops take place throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday across the six side stages. The workshops, also known as "jams" or "sessions" involve four to five festival artists playing together on the same stage. Often centered around a theme, some workshops feature acts of similar style, while others may feature artists of different genres. Artists generally take turns playing on each other's songs, or improvising in a "jam" format.
Folk Boot Camp[edit]
In addition to the main festival on Prince's Island Park, the Calgary Folk Music Festival runs a series of three-day intensive workshops at the National Music Centre, taught by festival artists in such areas as songwriting, arranging, vocal techniques and guitar. The three-day sessions allow the instructor and participants to develop their skills and receive constructive feedback from the instructor and peers.
Folk Boot Camp is geared towards musicians that have a basic grasp of their craft and want to supplement their own studies with guidance from some of the world's finest musicians.
Songwriting Contest[edit]
Until 2016, the Calgary Folk Music Festival held an annual songwriting contest which awarded local Alberta musicians $20,000 in prizes and a chance to perform at the festival. Previous winners include Raphaelle Standell, Lisa Lobsinger, John Wort Hannam, and The Cape May.[5][6] In 2016, CFMF ended its participation in the contest, leaving it to be continued by the Ship and Anchor pub exclusively.[5]
Block Heater[edit]
The Calgary Folk Music Festival also presents Block Heater, a winter music festival held each February on the Music Mile in the historic community of Inglewood. The winter festival hosts over 20 local, national and international artists for concerts and collaborative songwriter-in-the-round sessions at several venues throughout the neighbourhood and downtown Calgary.[7] The 9th annual Block Heater music festival took place February 15-17, 2024.[8]
Festival Hall[edit]
Festival Hall is the Calgary Folk Music Festival's office and boutique performance space. The LEEDS Silver equivalent 200-seat flexible community space, designed by Peter Cardew Architects, includes geo-thermal passive heating and cooling systems, reclaimed materials and significant architectural details, such as the signature timbered ceiling. Festival Hall's overriding programming and vision will mirror the Festival's: to offer diverse, top-notch, innovative, collaborative programming and capture the sense of ownership that the audience and volunteers have towards the Festival. The Hall extends the Festival into a year-round operation as the host of year-round concerts, multi-media presentations, collaborations and workshops. It's also a meeting space for the Festival's 1800 volunteers, a community space for event rentals and a multi-purpose, multi-disciplinary home for Calgary's arts community. In 2022 Festival Hall celebrated its 10th anniversary, and has since become a significant central gathering place for artists to perform, collaborate and innovate that hosts artistic workshops, discussions, lectures, song contests, master classes and other presentations for a variety of community organizations and a wide range of artistic disciplines (film, theatre, media and literary arts, dance etc.).
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ Tommy D. Andersson; Donald Getz; Reidar Johan Mykletun (11 June 2014). Festival and Event Management in Nordic Countries. Routledge. pp. 239–. ISBN 978-1-317-97790-2.
- ^ a b "Calgary Folk Music Festival". Exclaim!. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "Calgary Folk Music Festival Gets Emmylou Harris, the Sadies, Andrew Bird, the Weather Station for 2023 Edition | Exclaim!". Calgary Folk Music Festival Gets Emmylou Harris, the Sadies, Andrew Bird, the Weather Station for 2023 Edition | Exclaim!. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ^ "Calgary Folk Music Festival Gets Ben Howard, Booker T. Jones, Cowboy Junkies for 2024 Edition | Exclaim!". Calgary Folk Music Festival Gets Ben Howard, Booker T. Jones, Cowboy Junkies for 2024 Edition | Exclaim!. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ^ a b Bell, Mike (April 14, 2016). "Ship & Anchor finds smooth sailing as it goes it alone for annual Songwriting Contest". Calgary Herald. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
- ^ Posted, Leah Collins (2011-09-15). "Sep 2011: Braids weave stunning success out of unlikely beginning". Winnipeg Free Press. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ^ "Block Heater winter music festival returns to Calgary on Valentine's week | Listed". dailyhive.com. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
- ^ Palmer, Sarah (2024-03-22). "Calgary Folk Music Festival hosts 9th annual Block Heater concerts". Calgary Journal. Retrieved 2024-04-08.
External links[edit]
- Calgary Folk Fest Web Page