Indie folk star Leslie Feist kicks off Folk Festival with high energy performance.
After waiting in line for over an hour to redeem a ticket for a wristband, Winnipeg Folk Festival patrons were treated to a highly entertaining opening night concert on Wednesday evening at Birds Hill Provincial Park.
Folk Fest patrons waiting to get their wristbands
While some were annoyed at the long line up to get in, most took it stride.
“It’s what I do every year,” chuckled long time Folk Fester Bob Johnson. “I come to the Folk Festival and wait in line.”
For Johnson, and many others, it’s the consistently high quality of musical entertainment that has kept them coming back over the Festival’s 39 years.
“It’s always great,” says Johnson, who attends with his wife Margo.
“We relax and enjoy the music.”
Wednesday evening was no exception. Hosted by the outrageously funny comic and now Winnipegger, Kevin McDonald, the concert kicked of with a solid musical line up that included Ontario indie folkies, Snowblink, http://www.snowblinksays.com/, Illinois folk-bluegrass songwriter and clawhammer banjo player, Abigail Washburn http://www.abigailwashburn.com/website/, Irish indie folk guitarist and songwriter, James Vincent McMorrow, http://www.jamesvmcmorrow.com/, and Ontario singer-songwriter, Justin Rutledge http://www.justinrutledge.com/.
All of these musical offerings served as a primer for headliner and indie folk star, Feist, who reminded the crowd, “It’s been seven years since we played in this field.” And played, she did, knocking out high-energy tunes from her latest album, Metals. http://www.listentofeist.com/. A standing ovation was followed by a three-song encore.
Feist knocking out the tunes
Since the Festival added a Wednesday night to its line up, it has almost always delivered an entertaining show on this opening evening. A hot, muggy day was followed by a typical Folk Festival sunset, capped off by a light breeze that cooled things off nicely.
The Festival continues tomorrow evening at 6 pm and goes through Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Community News Commons is encouraging all citizen journalists to file stories and photos from their time at this year’s Winnipeg Folk Festival. http://www.winnipegfolkfestival.ca/
