Winnipeg Folk Festival: Reviewed
My junk drawer full of thoughts about my first music festival and everything that happened before, during, and after.
My parents raised my brother and I in the great outdoors. Every day in the summer was either hiking, climbing, mountain biking, or camping. Every day during the school year was an outdoor sports practice. I got to the point where I oftentimes feel more relaxed and comfortable outside than in. I wasn’t allowed to watch television until I was 12 and I didn’t have a device until 14, but it never really mattered too much because we always had an outdoor activity planned.
The most notable camping trip with my family was when I was 8 years old and we were camping in southwest Missouri. We were camping pretty far deep into the campsite in a break between trees next to a flowing river, and had our Boston Terrier, Muffin, with us. Sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke to quiet but frantic conversation between my parents and the wind whipping the tent around. There was occasional thunder and lightning that lit up the tent every once in a while. Muffin started pacing circles around the tent and panting. The wind was blowing so hard that Father Rooster was worried a tree would fall on our tent. So we rummaged around the tent in the dark for keys and wallets (this was before we had smartphones that had built-in flashlights) before making a mad dash for the car. Father Rooster was carrying me and in the sprint, the wind caught one of my flip flops and it flew back the way we came. Once in the car, we quickly found that a tree had fallen over the path, this was also about the same time the tornado sirens started going off. We had to drive off the road then eventually find it again to make the drive out and find the closest motel, which had also lost power due to the storm. The next morning when we returned to our campsite, the river had almost overflowed all the way to our tent, which had been mildly broken in the wind. I did find my flip flop! It was in the middle of the river which, luckily, wasn’t really flowing and allowed me to wade out and grab it.
All this to say, even with the tornado camping experience and 22 years of surviving various events out in nature, nothing prepared me for camping four nights at Winnipeg Folk Fest with only outhouses while I was on my period.
Last year when I spent my summer in NYC, I did random roommates for my housing and one of the roommates I was paired with was Sonia. Sonia is from Winnipeg and despite only spending three weeks with her last June, I decided to fly out to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to attend Winnipeg’s biggest event – the folk festival.
Forty-nine years ago the organizers of the event bought a couple large plots of land out in the country next to the farmers. That’s pretty much all the planning it took! They added in some water spigots, planted some trees, installed a few community showers out in the open, and every year in June they bring the stages in on trucks and assemble them in the different fields.
The festival started on Thursday, but Wednesday morning is when the campground opens for campers to claim their spots, everyone trying to get inside the trees for more shade. Since I flew into Canada at 11am, luckily Sonia’s friends had arrived at the park at 7am on bikes to claim a spot right on the edge of the trees. They laid down the tarp for our tent so that we formed a circle around one common area. Sonia and I brought a car load of things on Wednesday, using a wagon and various bungee cords to keep all of the things secured in the wagon as we lugged it half a mile into the campground. We basically had to bring in all the food we were going to eat for the week, as the prices of the food at the festival were pretty steep. We set up our camp but slept at Sonia’s house Wednesday night and showed up when the music started, around 3pm, on Thursday.
There were lots of things I took away from the weekend. The first and foremost being that, if I want some semblance of ‘normal’ in my life, it seems as though I might have to go back on anxiety medicine. Which is not something I thought, or wanted, to be writing about during my Folk Fest recap. It is something I have struggled with ever since I was a small child who would pick at the skin on her body until it bled or the sixth grader who had to stay home from school for a week just because she could not stop crying and didn’t know why. I was on anxiety medicine for the spring semester of my junior year of college and although it helped me during school, I stopped it because it made me feel very emotionless and bland. Plus when I stopped it, I was moving to NYC for art school in two weeks, so I was feeling pretty content about my life and felt like I could regulate my emotions by myself.
When I look back on Folk Fest I feel like I have a lot of regrets for things I didn’t do. And when I break down those regrets, they all stem from me being anxious about something or feeling as though I don’t know how to do something. I will only list three of my regrets, because after I do so I will be writing about Folk Fest as if it was the best thing ever (which is was) and I think it’s important to be clear that there were also some uncomfortable and poor parts about it that wouldn’t be apparent just through the Instagram post I made.
I regret not getting to know Sonia’s friends better and not joking around with them more, because they were all really cool people with varying interests and also lots of similarities to me. Why didn’t I? I often feel as though I don’t really know how to interact with other people and I’m not sure how to have conversations with people.
I also regret not being able to stay up later and enjoy the aura of the campground more, because it was all super cool. When I feel anxious all day I get extremely tired when the sun goes down. As soon as the last concert was over at midnight I was cold and tired and it felt like my brain turned off. The latest I stayed up was 4:45am but I was basically mute the entire night and my vision kept going blurry. I wanted to stay up late, I really did!
The thing I regret the most though, is not taking more photos and videos. I took my little Canon photo camera that I bring to clubs and also my Canon camcorder that my parents first got when they would record my field hockey games for scouts. I didn’t take a single photo or video on either of them. I think my brain was just too focused on staying standing upright than going up to a stranger wearing a cool outfit or makeup and asking to take a portrait.
Now, to proceed to the reason Folk Fest is a thing at all…
Music
It was unceremoniously hot during this Folk Fest in the low 90s F (or, as the Canadians say, low 30s C) so there was less moving around to different performers and more of just finding a shady spot and enjoying whoever was playing at that stage. Here are a few I have been listening to on Spotify ever since getting back to the US –
The Grogans
The first concert that we saw on Thursday and one of the best live performers I have ever seen. They were so clear and the guitar work was flawless. They were also Australian and super hot, which definitely helps. Later in the day Sonia, Faye (Sonia’s friend), and Damien (Faye’s boyfriend) and I saw the Grogans standing around watching another band performing. We went up to them and professed our love. Later, Damien told us that “a grogan” is Aussie slang for “piece of shit”.
They told us that they were very surprised (but delighted) that it was their first time ever in Canada and they were in this little town in Manitoba and everyone in the crowd was singing their songs back to them. Sonia pointed to me and said, “She came all the way from the States to be here! And not even Minnesota!”
They used that a lot over the weekend. People either just nodded politely, were impressed, or gave me their sincerest apologies about our political environment (I was also at Folk Fest the day that Trump got shot, which brought forth lots of questions).
Dirtwire
I have no idea if this music is good to stream, but it was a fucking blast to dance to in person. Three of Sonia’s friends and I were all the way up at the barricade with Faye’s older sister and her friends who were most likely on hard drugs. All I really remember is jumping up and down, seeing a guy play some weird obo-of-sort instrument and having Addie turn to me and yell “Imagine what his tongue can do if he can play that thing!” then shriek with laughter. There was also a 12-year-old who made his way into our group who was jumping up and down and whipping his hair back and forth in a way that made Faye turn to me and say, “I think this kid’s on ecstasy!”
Neal Francis
He was the headliner we chose to see on Saturday night. When you listen to his recorded music it seems pretty tame but when they played it live they added a large dose of ‘oomf’ to the songs. Also that ‘oomf’ might have just been our rush as we had just bought mixed drinks and sprinted to the front of the crowd with them in hand from the beer garden. I’m always a big enthusiast of running while tipsy. During this concert I also saw a couple of 12 year old boys take cans of Bubbly, stick their thumbs in them, and shotgun them like it was alcohol. I’m also a big enthusiast of cultured little kids.
(I have a vague memory of Addie and I grabbing hands at some point during this song and swaying back and forth singing to it.)
Mt. Joy
They were the headliners of the whole festival and performed on Friday night. They played one song before they got postponed for thunder and lightning. We went over to the beer garden to sit under a pavilion and by the time we finished our beer-garden-wide singalong of “Bohemian Rhapsody”, the storm was far enough away. They started back up singing “Dreams” by Fleetwood Mac which was either a last minute decision or a great coincidence (“Oh, thunder only happens when it's rainin'...When the rain washes you clean, you'll know”).
Towards the end they were saying something about having just one song left but we couldn’t really hear what they were saying, because at some point they started mumbling. Everyone was pretty quiet so Addy and I took that opportunity to scream at the the top of our lungs, “Sing Astrovan!” Which I’m positive the band heard because we were very close to the front and they had taken their in-ears out. It should be a good thing that they heard us! But actually what we didn’t hear was that someone in the front row passed out from heat exhaustion so they were trying to get help and everyone knew that but us so we just kind of looked like assholes. They did end up closing with Astrovan though!
Also heard good stuff from New Dangerfield (bonus: the bass player was cute), Ariel Posen, AfroSonic Fusion, Bendigo Fletcher, SYML, Half Moon Run, and Shakey Graves.
Shakey Graves was the headliner on Thursday night and I sent his music to Jaden saying, “I just heard him and think you would really like it!” He responded with this:
He is so hard to please.
There are multiple things I mentioned while talking about music that I would like to touch on.
“(I was also at Folk Fest the day that Trump got shot, which brought forth lots of questions).”
The Canadians had so many questions for me about the gun laws in the US and it was very surprising to me, because it seems so normal to me. They assumed that you could just take guns anywhere in red states, even concerts and rallies. They were very confused how there could still be so many mass shootings if you have to go through security checkpoints and metal detectors. Me too, Canadians! It was at this time that I felt able to tell them how nervous I was being in the mosh pit and at the campsite knowing that we didn’t go through any metal detectors even though I know rationally that doesn’t happen in Canada. At one point someone set off fireworks in the campsite and screamed (which is prohibited and they were fined CAD $10,000) and I definitely exposed myself as someone who grew up their entire life doing shooter drills in school.
“Three of Sonia’s friends and I were all the way up at the barricade with Faye’s older sister and her friends”
I am so jealous of people with sisters!!! Faye has an older sister who was there with her friends and boyfriend (Eliza) and her younger sister who stayed with us (Harmony) and I was so jealous that they had each other like that. Whenever Faye or Harmony would need something they would just go to Eliza, who was camping in an RV, and get it. Eliza always was at the barricade of the good concerts and Faye and Harmony always dragged us up to the front and her friends took us in. Having an older sister would be such a miraculous and god-like experience. But even having younger siblings would be immaculate. I believe that older, cooler girls are the backbone of our society and I have learned everything good from older, cooler girls but I feel as though I have yet to be that older, cooler girl for someone else. I think a younger sister, once they transitioned from a brat to a Brat, would think of me like that.
“I also saw a couple of 12 year old boys take cans of Bubbly, stick their thumbs in them, and shotgun them like it was alcohol. I’m always a big enthusiast of cultured little kids.”
Having a festival like this, with over 40,000 people in attendance, in your hometown since you are little must be such a shaping experience. There were so many families there during the day and although those families kept it G-rated, there’s no escaping the older kids in cool folk clothes smoking weed. I was never exposed to anything even remotely close to this as a kid (remember, I was raised in the woods) and I know the effect it had on my 22-year-old brain so I cannot imagine who I would be as a person if I had gone to Folk Fest every year since I was 8 like Faye and her sisters have.
“nothing prepared me for camping four nights at Winnipeg Folk Fest with only outhouses while I was on my period.”
I started off with this and then made you wait so long to hear about it. I started my period on the Thursday the festival started. Which I predicted but was still hoping for a delayed one. I didn’t know until Sonia and I showed up at the campground that there were only outhouses, which I think was a strategic move on her part. To be honest, the outhouses were remarkably clean and fresh-smelling since they were brought in just for the festival and were cleaned daily. However there were a few early morning trips I took to the outhouse in which I was gagging as I peed (I have a very strong gag reflex in the mornings, I just let it happen). Anyways, being on my period during all of this was a very unfortunate time but I just tried to not really think about it. I didn’t really realize how horrible that specific experience was until I was home sleeping in my own bed after taking a 30-minute shower.
We were about 100-yards from the outhouses and I am a chronic night-peer. But I never felt unsafe because at any point throughout the night there were at least 100 people awake. I had many walks to the bathroom at 5am where I would see people rolling on their backs while doing poppers outside of their tent.
“installed a few community showers out in the open”
I should have taken pictures of the showers, but that probably would have involved taking photos of nude men which is something I never want to do. Basically it was a wood post in the ground and four shower heads on each side of the post, completely out in the open with no privacy. Most people put on swim suits to bathe and some men went nude. There is such a thing as being too confident with your body! It was hard for me to take a shower during my period, as I have an ovarian condition that makes it impossibly painful to put in a tampon while I’m bleeding. I can put one in fine when I’m not in the menstruation phase, but what good does that do? On Saturday I was bleeding light enough that I just raw dogged a shower to soap up and wash my hair before running to the outhouse to put a pad back on. It worked out fine.
“Sometime in the middle of the night, I awoke to quiet but frantic conversation between my parents and the wind whipping the tent around”
Early Saturday morning, around 4am, I awoke to the wind whipping our tent around just like that one tornado storm. Sonia and I woke up and went outside to close the windows and make sure the tent was pegged down well. Still half asleep she said, “Don’t worry, thunderstorms like this roll in all the time. It will be over soon. Are you afraid of storms?” And sleepily I asked her, “Do you guys have tornados here?” As soon as she said no, my head hit the pillow and I had the best sleep of the whole weekend as the rain poured down on our tent and thunder clapped outside. It has now come to my attention that I think I only camp in bad weather.
The last point I want to make is about the city of Winnipeg as a whole. I could tell Sonia was a little nervous to have me there because on the surface, Winnipeg is just a small farming town in Manitoba, an underappreciated province in the middle of Canada. But very quickly as she was showing me around I started to see that the Midwest and Manitoba were very similar, which makes lots of sense because they are at pretty much the same longitudinal point. Recently I’ve been pondering the idea that I actually really like middle America and it has done a lot for me that cities on the coast could not have and I think that everyone should get it in their brains that it’s not the city that determines how cool someone is or how much fun they can have, it’s the person. Because maybe Winnipeg and St. Louis don’t have the downtown or nightlife that NYC has or the beaches and celebrities that LA has but when you’re surrounded by good friends who just want to have a good time, it doesn’t really matter. Every city is dope if you want it to be.
Yours truly,
Calihan
Really enjoyed reading this! I've never been to Winnipeg Folk Fest before, but there is a certain extra-special vibe of beauty and togetherness that you can only get at a Canadian folk festival.