post-winnipeg

Back in Toronto, a bit brain-dead but happy. :-)

My visit in Winnipeg went by far too quickly. For me, one of the highlights was the last night of the Festival. More great music, of course, but one of the main stage acts was Sam Baardman! Lots of whistles and cheering from our section of the audience, of course. :-) He performed "The Amazon Is Burning" and "Solar Flare" as well as leading a song in the finale. The finale consisted of a number of singalongs. There's nothing quite like belting out "The Mary Ellen Carter" with a crowd of thousands as an amazing display of Northern Lights flickers in the night sky above. Afterwards we all filed back to the campground (our group was still singing, with others around us joining in :)) for more music until the wee hours. Allison debuted her new song about Baggiecon (I played penny whistle!). Allison and I missed Jodi. :( Lots of different instruments in the circle...Dave Clement and Mark Wise on drums, Kylea and I on flute and penny whistle, Beckett on harmonica, Bill Rintz on fiddle, and of course lots of guitars :-). I had a seat beside Nate Buckland and had a chance to observe his guitarwork close-up...wow. From time to time a stranger would come by from another campsite and join the circle around the campfire, either to listen or to play, or both. We finally headed back to the house at around 5 pm (many many thanks to Paul for being our patient chauffeur during the weekend!) in spite of being nearly devoured by a swarm of hungry mosquitoes who tried following us into the van.

Tom visited in the morning, drove Paul and Beckett to the airport. Then Tom, Allison and I went out for a late breakfast before going to the airport ourselves with Tom, Dave, and Erin. More good-byes. :(

More details likely coming later in the week by Allison; hopefully I'll soon be posting photos here as well.

Some photos and reports from the Festival can be found at the Winnipeg Folk Festival site.

Officemusic: Dee Carstensen, THE MAP (got this at WFF).