Home   About   Partners   Info   Help   Sitemap   Search   Contact Us Home >> Performing Arts >> Events >> Folk Music Festival Edmonton Folk Music Festival Jazz City International Music Festival Edmonton Fringe Festival National PlayRites Festival Shakespeare in the Park International Children's Festival Alberta Dance Explosions Festival Edmonton Folk Music Festival One of the leading folk festivals in the world, the Edmonton Folk Music Festival features talent from around the globe in a four day extravaganza displaying a mixture of celtic, bluegrass, blues, gospel, roots, world beat, country and R&B music. Every year, the festival features something different. The festival tries to balance a variety of talent with 50 percent Canadian artists, and an equal amount of male and female musicians. Well known artists play along side aspiring artists to provide a mix of established and developing talent. Listen as Terry Wickham speaks about the work involved in organizing the Edmonton Folk Music Festival and the success experienced by the festival. Listen Now

Edmonton seemed an unlikely location for a folk festival when the idea was proposed by Donald Lewis Whalen. Don Whalen had an optimistic vision which became reality through the hard work of many individuals and dedicated volunteers and was actively involved in many folk music pursuits before the founding of the Folk Music festival. He was associated with the Edmonton Folk Music Society which ran weekend concerts at the Yard bird Suite in the basement of the Army and Navy store on Whyte Avenue. In 1985, the festival became a not-for-profit democratic society with an elected nine-person board that hires the festival's producer and sets operating policy. From the beginning, the festival was led by volunteers.

Currently, 1,800 volunteers on 35 crews, work to make the event a success.

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