If you can’t decide on a favourite music genre, the Calgary Folk Music Festival (CFMF) is the event for you.
The annual event returns to Calgary on July 25 for the 45th year and promises to serenade your ears with a diverse mix of musical talent.
On average, the festival sees over 50,000 audience members, referred to as “folkies,” every year, which speaks to how far the CFMF has come.
The CFMF started in 1980 as a two-day event with three stages.
Since then, the festival has experienced countless highs and lows.
These memorable moments include the construction of the CFMF’s permanent mainstage on Prince’s Island Park in 2022, recovering after the 2013 floods five weeks before the festival, digital programming during the pandemic, and a couple’s engagement on stage with Michael Franti.
Each of these moments helped the CFMF grow into the highly anticipated four-day, eight-stage musical festival it is today.
It isn’t just folkies who flock to the CFMF, but performers, too.
Over the years, the festival has hosted and interacted with a list of colourful artists, like David Byrne, who would ride his bike around the island after a sound check.
The festival also witnessed k.d. Lang performing in a cowgirl dress with the Reclines before she was a multi-award-winning singer-songwriter.
How could we forget Ongo Trogode, a group of Banda people from the Central African Republic who played horns made from hollow tree trunks?
When the group expressed a need for bikes in their village, the CFMF’s volunteers didn’t hesitate to acquire and donate 200 bikes for the Banda people.
Heart Of The Festival
At the heart of the CFMF is the festival’s volunteers, who work tirelessly to ensure that everyone enjoys the event to the fullest.
The festival’s over 1,600 community volunteers are responsible for many tasks: serving drinks, feeding and transporting artists, scanning tickets, taking photos, managing stages, and so much more.
Without the volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy the CFMF.
Time and time again, the festival’s volunteers have gone above and beyond to create one of the best music festivals in the world.
This year, volunteers raised over $75,000 for the festival, which is about four times what the event usually makes. The key to their success was Taylor Swift.
Don’t get too excited!
Taylor wasn’t actually in Calgary helping out the CFMF. Volunteers included a chance to win a Taylor Swift concert package in a raffle. Their strategy was flawless.
“Folks were really, really excited and snapping up the raffle tickets as best as they could,” Sara Leishman, executive director of the Calgary Folk Festival Society, told CBC News.
The ticket winner was Karen Phillipps, who has been trying to get her hands on Swift concert tickets for her 12-year-old daughter, Saskia, for a long time.
The CFMF’s raffle wasn’t the first raffle Phillipps tried that was offering the highly sought-after Swift tickets, but it was certainly her last.
“I saw the opportunity and just with the game of odds, as an Alberta resident and Folk Festival, that it’s going to attract mostly Calgary, right? So I bought 50 tickets for $50, and it ended up being a heck of an investment,” explained Phillipps.
The concert package won by Phillipps and her daughter is valued at $16,000 and includes two concert tickets to Swift’s Eras Tour show at Wembley Stadium in August in London, England.
The package also includes cash for hotels, flights, and other transportation.
Sweet!
What To Expect
Almost 70 artists from various genres will perform at this year’s CFMF, including blues, country, North African, jazz, soul, indie, and folk music.
This year’s headliners include Ben Howard, Billie Marten, A Stax Revue, Fantastic Negrito, Luna Li, The Roots, Wild Rivers, KT Tunstall, Cowboy Junkies, Leith Ross, Leif Vollebekk, and others.
The CFMF sees about 12,000 folkies a day during the festival, but rest assured that there will be more than enough amenities, including food, drinks, water refilling stations, and port-a-potties.
If you need a break from the music, the festival will have a Family Zone, Talk Tenk, and the Big Rock Beer Garden.
Families can enjoy family-friendly activities at the Family Zone, including toys, games, crafts, face painting, and other activities for children.
Folkies can enjoy comedy, spoken word, hip-hop cyphers, and family entertainment in the shaded Talk Tent.
The Big Rock Beer Garden will serve beer, cider, wine, and non-alcoholic beverages if you feel parched and need a drink.
Singing, dancing, and enjoying the CFMF’s many activities will increase an appetite. Thankfully, over 25 unique food vendors from the Calgary area will be at this year’s festival.
Food makes waste, but the CFMF’s eco-crew works hard to minimize how much waste ends up in landfills. In 2023, the festival’s eco program saw 70 percent of waste diverted from landfills.
In total, the CFMF reduced its festival waste by almost 40 percent between 2018 and 2023. This year’s CFMF is shaping up to be a good one, so get your dancing shoes ready and prepare for delicious food and even better music!
