Vancouver is the coastal seaport city situated on the mainland of British Columbia. It acts as the hub of Greater Vancouver. With amazing cityscapes and hip and happening city, culture makes it an up-and-coming wonder. The best part about Vancouver is that even though it is moving towards a more modern outlook it still tries to maintain its traditional aspects as well. One of its major tradition keeping festivals is the Vancouver Folk Music Festival celebrated annually on the third weekend of July. Many visitors from all round book cheap flights to Vancouver to get here and join in on the fun.
Initially founded in 1978 this festival takes up at least eight outdoor stages at the Jericho Beach Park. Jericho Beach is a famous hotspot in Vancouver and a favourite for picnickers and families on weekends. The name Jericho means ‘Good Land’ in the indigenous language. The festival attracts artists from all over the world featuring one country of other folk styles of music. But over the years it has taken up more hip-hop and spoken word standard too. Even ethnic musicians find it hard not to participate in this festival and showcase their folk music from back home.
Famous names that have participated in the past include Utah Philips, Sarah Harmer, Ani Difranco, Tuvan Throat singers, Veda Hille, Ferron, Feist, K’naan, Wendy Mc Neill, The Fugitives, Spiro, Joel Plaskett, Elliot Brood, Buck 65, Flight of the Conchords and many more. The types of music featured here is usually folk, world, singer-songwriter, bluegrass, hip hop and other traditional mixes. The festival lasts 3 days and is known to draw crowds of about 30,000 plus.
The next festival will be the 35th annual Folk Music Festival and will be held on 13th, 14th and 15th July 2012. The 34th festival had amazing examples of international music from artists like Spiro and Cassius Khan who flew in from the UK and the Albertan pop artist Wendy McNeill. The show stealers were Pokey LaFarge and The South City who brought down the house with authentic country melodies featuring traditional blues and sharp solos with a washboard player and bicycle horn to boot!
The Musical Masala band brought in an oriental flavour with their traditional Indian tabla music and Drum and Bass solos featuring a harmonium, guitar and spicy sitar music. Later the audience was drawn in by the patriotic themes played by Joel Plaskett, Elliott Brood and The Fugitives that featured a bowed banjo, hearty vocals and spoken word. The humour was brought in by The Mountain Goat comedy singing troupe. And the band titled The Burning Hell had the most unique story songs which featured instrumentals that included a cello, bass, violin, drums, clarinet, baritone sax and a ukulele. Then came the blues renditions by Buck 65. This was just to give you an idea of what to expect this year at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival. So plan your trip and get a head start in purchasing your tickets to an evening of a lifetime.
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