Calgary Folk Fest Line-Up Announced

Folk Fest Fever has officially begun with the Wednesday announcement of the line-up at the Ship & Anchor. A limited number of early-bird tickets went on sale today, and after a few technical snags caused a bit of a panic, order was restored and excited fans got their tickets. Even with the news that Sinead O’Connor would not be attending, the line-up was met with excitement as some of the biggest names in Folk and Indie are slated to descend on Prince’s Island park this summer.

The 60 plus artists span genres as well as the globe; this year artists represent 12 countries. From legendary piano player Randy Newman, to indie-rock darlings The Rural Alberta Advantage, there is something for all tastes.

Personally I am excited to see Jeff Mangum, who’s original band the Neutral Milk Hotel disbanded before I was able to fully appreciate them. That being said, it’s likely that all the artist will be a treat for audiences. Whether you’re an old school Chris Isaak fan, one of Dan Mangan’s many screaming female fans, or just someone strolling by the park and wondering what all the fuss is about you’re likely to find an artist who tickles your fancy.

In addition to having the world’s best folk and indie artist performing in Calgary, artists will be participating in song-writing boot camps at the Nation Music Centre (formerly Cantos). The 7th annual Folk Boot Camp at the National Music Centre (July 24-26) offers an opportunity to grow as an artist alongside songwriters like Sam Baker, Mark Berube and Jon Langford, guitar players Luke Doucet and Donna Gantis and vocalist Shakura S’Aida.  Additionally, the film Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus will be screened with its narrator, Jim White in attendance.

The Folk Fest also launched a hash tag they are hoping will ignite social media and get people tweeting. #CFMF and #DreamSetlist are both going to be invading twitter feeds in the area over the next few months. Festival organizers are reaching out to fans for their suggestion on what songs their favourite Folk Fest artist should play. As I mentioned before, I am quite excited to hear Jeff Mangum play songs from the seminal indie-rock album In The Aeroplane Over the Sea so if he plays the album start to finish, that would be quite the dream. Another dream set list might also resemble Randy Newman playing the theme song he wrote for my favourite cancelled show ‘Monk’.

For more information and tickets, go the Calgary Folk Music Festival website. If you want to keep connected to what’s going on in Downtown Calgary, be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and sign up for our weekly newsletter.

Tagged as: Alberta, Calgary, calgary folk music festival, canada, folk, Folk Fest, Folk Music, jeff mangum, music festivals, Prince's Island Park, randy newman, summer festivals