Latest news with #ReginaFolkFestival
Winnipeg Free Press
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Cheers to 50 years of the Folk Fest — & 50 more
Opinion Five years ago, there were no festivals. It was the summer of 2020, and the COVID-19 pandemic meant no live… anything. No music. No theatre. All the festivals that have come to define summer in Manitoba were purged from the calendar. Organizations did their best, of course, offering smaller, virtual presentations for a time defined by staying home. But it wasn't the same. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Lineups stretch far past the entrance before the gates open at Folk Fest on Thursday. Five years on, music festivals, in particular, are still feeling the aftershocks of that time, owing to both financial losses sustained as well as increased operational costs in a post-pandemic landscape. A spate of cancellations of American music festivals last summer prompted NPR to call it 'the festival recession.' It was a trend we saw on this side of the border as well. Just for Laughs cancelled its 2024 events in Montreal and Toronto. And some of these festivals — popular, beloved festivals, even — never recovered. The Regina Folk Festival, which was supposed to celebrate its 53rd year in 2025, announced it would be permanently shutting down in March after going on hiatus in 2024. The Vancouver Island MusicFest is not happening this year, while the 2025 edition of the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival could be its last. It's against this backdrop that the Winnipeg Folk Festival is celebrating its 50th anniversary this weekend. Fifty years is an incredible — and, these days, an increasingly improbable — run. Especially since it was supposed to be a one-off, originally conceived by founders Mitch Podolak, Ava Kobrinsky and Colin Gorrie as a celebration for Winnipeg's centennial in 1974. But a legacy festival isn't built by mere endurance — or survival — alone. It's built by people who have a vision for it, who can recognize both where it came from and where it could go. MANITOBA ARCHIVES Winnipeg Folk Festival founders Mitch Podolak (left) and Ava Kobrinsky in 1977. It's built by the generations of people who have grown up with it, who take their kids or grandkids to Birds Hill Park every second weekend of July. It's built by the people who dedicate hard-earned vacation days and money to attend every year, regardless of who is performing. It's built by the people who volunteer their time and energy to making sure the whole thing runs as planned and can pivot when it doesn't. Wednesdays Columnist Jen Zoratti looks at what's next in arts, life and pop culture. Festivals need stewardship. We all saw the grotesque failure of Woodstock '99 and its wholesale abandonment of the peace and love ethos that made the 1969 event so iconic; organizers didn't care about making it a safe temporary community. So much of what makes folk fest what it is is exactly that: community. Sure, there's the annual kvetching about the lineup — someone's best-ever year is always someone else's worst-ever and vice versa — or even the definition of 'folk 'music. But even that is part of the ritual. Creating the kind of place where people want to return again and again, year after year, decade after decade is no small feat and it doesn't just happen. Nor will it continue to happen if we don't keep supporting it and our new normal will look a lot like that summer of 2020. Crowds at the Little Stage on the Prarie during the 2011 Folk Festival. Folk fest is special and rare and ours. Cheers to 50 years — and here's to 50 more. Jen ZorattiColumnist Jen Zoratti is a columnist and feature writer working in the Arts & Life department, as well as the author of the weekly newsletter NEXT. A National Newspaper Award finalist for arts and entertainment writing, Jen is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at RRC Polytech and was a music writer before joining the Free Press in 2013. Read more about Jen. Every piece of reporting Jen produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print – part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Regina Fringe Festival cancelled this year, expected to return in 2026
The Regina Fringe Festival has cancelled its 2025 edition, but promised a return in July 2026. The festival shared the news on its website alongside an image of three sad clowns. The announcement comes a week after the Regina Folk Festival permanently shut down operations. For Vanessa Prevost, a theatre artist and comedy writer, the cancellation was a major disappointment. "It was a bummer when I got the email ," Prevost said. Prevost and her friend had planned to submit a Saskatchewan-based sketch show as "not only a love letter to Saskatchewan, but a roast and a farewell." "We don't know what to do with it now." Toronto-based playwright Laura Piccinin, who premiered her show Go at the 2023 festival, emphasized the importance of smaller Fringe festivals. "It would be a huge loss if the Regina Fringe Festival didn't come back," she said. Prevost said she hopes the festival returns in 2026 and does more to highlight Regina's local arts scene to visiting performers. "The performers never knew what to do outside of festival times," se said. "Having a little bit more set in place to showcase the city would be important." Festival organizers have not responded to requests for comment.
CBC
18-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Regina Fringe Festival cancelled this year, expected to return in 2026
The Regina Fringe Festival has cancelled its 2025 edition, but promised a return in July 2026. The festival shared the news on its website alongside an image of three sad clowns. The announcement comes a week after the Regina Folk Festival permanently shut down operations. For Vanessa Prevost, a theatre artist and comedy writer, the cancellation was a major disappointment. "It was a bummer when I got the email ," Prevost said. Prevost and her friend had planned to submit a Saskatchewan-based sketch show as "not only a love letter to Saskatchewan, but a roast and a farewell." "We don't know what to do with it now." Toronto-based playwright Laura Piccinin, who premiered her show Go at the 2023 festival, emphasized the importance of smaller Fringe festivals. "It would be a huge loss if the Regina Fringe Festival didn't come back," she said. Prevost said she hopes the festival returns in 2026 and does more to highlight Regina's local arts scene to visiting performers. "The performers never knew what to do outside of festival times," se said. "Having a little bit more set in place to showcase the city would be important."
Yahoo
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Regina Folk Festival 2025 cancelled, organization to dissolve
The Regina Folk Festival has announced that it is 'no longer possible' to continue with the long-standing summer music event 'due to financial constraints and reduced operational capacity.' 'The time has come to say goodbye to the Regina Folk Festival,' it said in a statement posted to its website Tuesday, adding that the board of directors will work to dissolve the organization. Last year, the organization launched an unofficial 'save the festival' campaign while also running a 'fallow year' of programming instead of the full festival and promising a fresh start in 2025. The live-music event had been hampered for two years by the COVID-19 pandemic, returning in 2022. Back in November, organizers were 'optimistic' to announce that the 53rd iteration of the festival would be return. But in the RFF's statement, it said that by the end of January, 'it became clear that financial challenges and capacity limitations could not be overcome.' Artistic director Amber Goodwyn will also step away from the board after two years in the role, according to the statement. The organization thanked her for 'exceptional leadership through pivotal moments of transition.' Goodwyn became artistic director following the departure of executive director Josh Haugerud in 2023. The end of the festival was attributed to 'financial pressures from the pandemic, including stagnant or reduced funding, rising costs, and declining ticket sales,' said the statement. 'This news is difficult, however we are filled with gratitude for everyone involved with the festival. We are grateful for the dedication, love, and expertise of our volunteers.' Regina Folk Festival ready to roll for 2023 but future remains uncertain Regina Folk Festival sends out 'urgent' plea for assistance The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe. With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.
CBC
11-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBC
Regina Folk Festival done permanently due to financial struggles
Social Sharing The Regina Folk Festival (RFF) is permanently shutting down after decades of bringing music to the city's downtown. Despite efforts to restructure and rebuild, festival organizers announced Tuesday that financial constraints and operational challenges have forced them to cancel the event and dissolve the organization. "This news is difficult, however, we are filled with gratitude for everyone involved with the festival," the RFF board of directors said in a statement. In June 2023, organizers warned the festival was facing a "serious financial crisis" and appealed to the community for donations and support. The festival then announced a hiatus in 2024 to rework its format, citing ongoing financial struggles. "We are taking a fallow year; a year away from summer festival programming to rebuild our resources and vision in a reality that's still in flux for presenting arts organizations across Canada after the economic challenges resulting from the pandemic," the festival said in a news release on March 6, 2024. Instead of a full-scale event in 2024, organizers launched a concert series while planning for the festival's return in 2025. The 53rd edition was scheduled to run from Aug. 8 to Aug. 10. The statement Tuesday said that by early this year, the organization realized the financial and staffing challenges were too great to overcome. The festival has now begun the process of refunding all purchased tickets. The RFF's closure is the latest blow to Canada's live music industry, which has struggled to recover in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rising costs, stagnant funding and declining ticket sales have put additional pressure on organizers. The RFF board says it now costs 30 to 40 per cent more than it did in 2019 to organize a comparable event. "According to the Canadian Live Music Association, the industry experienced a staggering 60% revenue decline during the pandemic," the statement said. End of an era Since its founding in 1969, the Regina Folk Festival has been a fixture of the city's summer music scene, attracting audiences to Victoria Park for a weekend of live music and entertainment. "For 55 years, the Regina Folk Festival has been more than just a celebration of live music; it's been a highly anticipated weekend of community building where lasting memories were made," the board said. "We are heartbroken that it is time to say goodbye."
