Lordy lordy, look who’s 40. That’s right; this year marks the 40th edition of the iconic Vancouver Folk Music Festival. Maybe it’s all that time at the beach, but the fest looks and sounds pretty good for its age, eh?
It was back in the summer of 1978 that the first-ever Vancouver Folk Music Festival was held on a rainy weekend in Stanley Park, co-founded by Gary Cristall and Mitch Podolak. Cristall is still involved to this day. And while the list of performers they rounded up for that first edition is damn impressive – everyone from Bruce Cockburn to Leon Redbone to Valdy and Stan Rogers – the archival photos of a mostly empty, sodden field make that inaugural festival look a little bit dismal, even though they apparently sold close to 10,000 tickets.
Everything changed when the festival moved to its current world-class site at Jericho Beach Park in Kits. The sun came out for the second year, 16,000 tickets were sold, and that’s where the festival has been held ever since.
Over four decades, the festival has slowly grown up into what it has become in 2017: a unique, family-friendly celebration that brings over 60 international, national and local artists to its stages. These days, close to 40,000 tickets are sold. And while it feels like the festival is a very Vancouver-centric hippie dance party, it actually draws music lovers from all over the Pacific Northwest and the world.
I’ve had the pleasure of hosting the mainstage of the VFMF for the past several years, and I’ve seen with my own eyes how much this event means to people. Throughout the night, I’m constantly handed little hand-scrawled notes to read aloud on stage: “Happy 35th wedding anniversary to mom and dad, who met and fell in love at this festival! Love from your kids Dane, Wendy, and Zach.” It’s that kind of intergenerational love and appreciation that might just be VFMF’s secret of success.
“One of the reasons the festival works so well is because it’s always been rooted in the community, from the very first festival onward,” says Linda Tanaka, the festival’s ever-diplomatic general manager and artistic director. “From the volunteers to the attendees, it’s about letting people know that this is their festival.”
It’s working. In an era where music festivals are booming and busting all around us, falling face-forward like bloated giants, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival often sees families in attendance spanning three generations. My son has been there every year of his life, one time with his grandparents, watching his mum perform. The individual stories are endless.
Take Perry Giguere for instance. He saw an ad in the paper back in the spring of 1978, asking for volunteers at the first-ever folk fest. Each volunteer would get a free T-shirt. Giguere really wanted a free T-shirt, so he signed up. This year’s festival will be Giguere's 40th straight as a volunteer, and he still has that free shirt from 1978.
Or take Linda Uyehara Hoffman. Over the past four decades, she’s been an audience member, a performer, a volunteer and a director. One of Hoffman’s favourite memories is from that first festival, sitting in an almost empty field in soggy Stanley Park, listening to Alain LaMontagne, who she describes as “this weird Quebecois guy playing harmonica while tapping his foot on a board for percussion. He blew me away.”
This year, to celebrate both the festival’s 40th anniversary and Canada 150, the VFMF is offering a special free Thursday night concert (July 13) in addition to its regular full weekend of programming. Thursday night will feature a host of musicians covering classic Canadian songs. Be sure to RSVP at the festival website to assure entry. See you down there, and ride your bike, eh? Kids are free all weekend. Let’s get folked up!
• Grant Lawrence is the mainstage host of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival this Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Hecklers will be politely told to folk off.
