A much-needed, toe-dip back into normalcy.
No, it’s not a festival. A stampede. A fair.
It’s a whisper. A caress. It’s Summer Serenades.
And it will hopefully fill the void of the Calgary Folk Music Festival in your seasonal, staycation calendar — an event put on by the organization, and taking place in their usual summer home of Prince’s Island Park, at their usual summer time July 22-28.
It’s smaller, scaled down, but still generously rich with incredible talent from across the country, including headliners: CanCon legends Cowboy Junkies; Polaris Music Prize-winner Lido Pimienta and The Halluci Nation; West Coast-based treasure Dan Mangan; hip-hop trailblazer Shad; Blue Rodeo’s Jim Cuddy; along with Whitehorse, William Prince, Frazey Ford, Terra Lightfoot, Tom Wilson and iskwē’, Hawksley Workman and Jr. Gone Wild.
With the Serenade set at 12 per cent of normal capacity, limited to and only a MainStage schedule, there will obviously be some changes to the way things are done.
“Audience members will be seated on home base tarps and blankets with cohorts in zones. There will be a 2-metre distance between each home base to keep everyone safe, with generous pathways between zones … (and) the usual festival amenities — family area, artisan market and day stages — will not be activated.”
Tickets for Summer Serenades go on sale June 18 at 10 a.m.
And while tickets are limited, and limited to single-day-only ducats, all Calgarians, in this new Zoom, home-viewing world, will still be able to participate: “Live Summer Serenades programming, along with archival footage, live interviews and performances will be streamed (at) FolkFestTV, to make the programming accessible to all.”
The festival promises more information will be released soon, although the cast of artists is set now, and also features Scratch Bastid, Marleana Moore, Dragon Fli Empire, Amy Nelson, Villages, The Pairs and Common Holly.
In the meantime, the full lineup, schedules and tickets for Summer Serenades can be found at calgaryfolkfest.com.
