Edmonton Folk Fest Fun!

On Wednesday (August 5th) I spent the evening with my Mom at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival at Gallagher Park. Both Tracy Chapman and Sarah McLachlan were fantastic. The hill was a sight to behold with thousands of people and hundreds of twinkling lights. Tracy performed many of my favourite songs including "Mountain O' Things" and "Talkin' About a Revolution." Sarah performed "Angel", Joni Mitchell's "River", "Ice Cream" and several other hits...

The Edmonton Folk Fest is now celebrating its 30th year. Hard to believe that I've attended more than 90% of those years. As a child the festival was small (with attendance in the low to mid hundreds) and while our parents enjoyed the music and relaxed atmosphere; us kids spent the weekend sliding down the steep hill on cardboard boxes or playing in the playground. During rainy weather we would scour the park for stakes and branches (or anything else that would be helpful for creating a plastic tarp lean-to). Then we would read, sleep or play card games while attempting to stay dry or dance in the sometimes knee deep mud until we were soaking wet and exhausted. Today, the festival is a huge event with more than eighty thousand attendees each year. Of course, sliding on the hill is no longer permitted (there's no room for it anyway) and the rules and regulations are now more stringent then the years of my youth; which is hardly surprising considering the number of people. It's still an amazing event though and I certainly hope that my children will have fond memories from future years at the Folk Fest too! Perhaps DH and I will make plans to attend next year's festival with JG and our newest addition due in March.