Winnipeg Folk Festival Spurs a Lifetime of Music

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Main: Winnipeg Folk Festival Main Stage 2023 (Photo by Jennifer Kostesky, Courtesy of Winnipeg Folk Festival): Inset from top: Madeleine Roger, Roman Clarke, Micah!

By Zoë Mills 

The 49th Winnipeg Folk Festival is just days away. From July 11-14, folks from across the province and beyond will flock to Birds Hill Provincial Park for a festival that has been nurturing music lovers for generations. 

This year’s lineup includes international artists like Tiffany Liu (China), Ibibio Sound Machine (England), and Etran De L'Aïr (Niger), plus American idols like Mt. Joy, Noah Cyrus, and Lucinda Williams. As always, a whole host of amazing hometown talent will be taking the stages, too.      

The Mutual Admiration Society is this year’s all-local workshop. The afternoon performance features Ariel Posen, Leith Ross, Roman Clarke, Ruth Moody, and The Stanley County Cut-Ups. These artists from Manitoba span all genres and styles but share a common source of inspiration: the prairie experience. Find out more about this year's local performers

“The prairie experience, to me, is this profound isolation mixed with an incredible richness,” says Roman Clarke. “People in the prairies are impressively creative and ambitious. When you’re born here, you have to create the world that you want to live in.” 

Roman says the workshop will double as a reunion of old friends, where the love will surely be felt far beyond the stage.

This will be Roman’s first fest as a mentor with the Young Performers Program (YPP). 

“Being a mentor is a very high personal honour because my YPP mentors had an immeasurable impact on me.”

“People in the prairies are impressively creative and ambitious. When you’re born here, you have to create the world that you want to live in.” - Roman Clarke
 

The program connects young musicians, aged 14-24, from across Canada, the US, and abroad with mentors selected from the festival lineup. Over two days, participants write an original song and make it performance-ready. On the third day, the artists share their work in front of a Folk Fest audience. Find out more about the YPP performance details

When Roman was just 14, he entered the program with his best friend Liam Duncan (AKA Boy Golden) and performed at the fest for the first time as The Liam and Roman Expedition. 

“I got to meet people who were making a living off music and pursuing their dreams, and that made my dreams seem like something I could actually accomplish.”

The festival sees folks of all ages, from young performers to even younger listeners. 

Manitoba-based children’s performer Micah Baribeau is debuting as the sidekick to the eccentric Marijo. The bilingual performance celebrates adventure, fun, and kindness and includes original songs from Micah’s debut album. 

Micah says his act was inspired by icons like Al Simmons, Fred Penner, and his mother—fellow children’s performer Madame Diva

“I remember when she was on tour for weeks at a time we would FaceTime and sing songs,” Micah says. “It was through these calls that we composed the song 'Je t’aime,' which appeared on our shared album years later.” 

Today, Micah is nominated for Children’s Artist of the Year at the 2024 Western Canadian Music Awards. 

“Nothing beats the smiles I get to see in the crowd.” - Micah Baribeau
 

Considering how essential music was during his childhood, he understands the impact it can have on young folks. 

“The most special part about being a children’s performer has to be the reactions I receive during a show,” Micah says. “Nothing beats the smiles I get to see in the crowd.” 

He hopes his set can be as entertaining for parents as it is for the kids, catering to the multigenerational families he says he loves to see at the fest.

“I have such fond memories of being a barefoot child running around and playing with other folkie babies, and I hope to be going until I'm a sassy matriarch covered in wrinkles,” says Madeleine Roger, who has only ever missed two festival years. 

Madeleine has experienced the fest as an audience member, a volunteer, a crew coordinator, a YPP participant, and as a main stage performer.  

She began volunteering as a teenager with the Apprentice Crew and had the chance to work with a number of the teams that make the fest possible. As an adult, she returned as a Main Stage changeover volunteer and later became the crew coordinator. She says it was this experience that led her to work in stage management until her songwriting career became full-time. 

“It's amazing to have an organization that helps keep the music scene vibrant all the time.”  - Madeleine Roger
 

For Madeleine, the joys of Folk Fest last all year. And the music does too. The Winnipeg Folk Festival hosts concerts in Winnipeg year-round! 

“It's amazing to have an organization that helps keep the music scene vibrant all the time.” 

This year will be Madeleine’s second festival performance, and her first time playing under her own name. 

“It was always a dream of mine to maybe one day perform at this festival, so to be doing it for a second time, and with a large batch of new songs, feels like the culmination of a lifetime of artistic work paying off.” 

In addition to her own performance, Madeleine will be playing a second set as part of The Fretless. She’s been touring with the chamber folk group for the past year and a half. 

“We'll be performing some songs that we've written together that no one in Manitoba has heard yet,” she teases. “It's beyond exciting to get to share that collaboration at the festival that raised me.”

There is a fortifying force at the Winnipeg Folk Festival, year after year. In a way, it’s a place where the young can grow up and the old can stay young. 

“There is an energy that exists [at Folk Fest] that makes it easier to strike up a conversation with a stranger or to dance and sing and be a little more childlike,” says Roman Clarke. “Everyone can use an opportunity to be a little more expressive.” 

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