40 Years of Folk Music
Re:  Anatomy of a music fest’s death (July 15, 2017): The 40th Vancouver Folk Music Festival hosted a free Canada 150 concert Thursday night and had a rousing opening night concert on Friday.  I anticipated a story in Saturday’s paper about how this festival has been a trailblazer, eschewing big name artists in favour of introducing the audience to many new artists.  How it brings in artists from around the world, exposing festival-goers to music they wouldn’t otherwise hear. How it feeds the audience’s need for a critique of politics.  How it runs on the engine of 1400 volunteers.  Imagine my surprise that the 40th anniversary of this Canadian success story wasn’t mentioned.  Instead: a 2-page story about the demise of one music festival with warnings of others to follow.  The good news is that folk/world music festivals are thriving in Canada. Enough of ‘if it bleeds, it leads.’