One of the particular pleasures of my trip out west is to attend the Folk Festival at Providence Farm just outside of Duncan. The site is beautiful with the camping sites located in a forest, and the stages located in or near various gardens. Providence Farm which was the site of a school run by nuns (I have been told but I can't find any proof that it was a residential school) is now described as a therapeutic Community. On this large 400 acre site there are gardens maintained by seniors for their own enjoyment, a therapeutic riding centre and a number of day programs for individuals with special needs. It is also a great site for a small three day folk festival.
Many of the volunteers and attendees are local to the area and there is very much of a family or neighbourhood feeling to this festival. Which makes it a bit difficult for outsiders such as me to always feel as if we "fit in". But it was my third visit to the festival and this year, for the first time, there were people there who I had met at previous festivals. For example I have camped in the same place for the past three summers and so have the people across the path. This year he always made a point of saying "high neighbour" whenever we saw each other between shows. I don't have a clue what his or his wife's name is - they have never asked for mine but we will forever be neighbours. But generally the people are nice and always prepared to chat about this performer or that, the food is good (it is one of the only places on the island to get fries from a chip truck) and there are always enough acts to impress me. Usually there are one or two acts that are so great that I have to buy their CDs. My favourites from this year were Kat Danser from the Prairies who sang the blues so beautifully in the Chapel - which has great acoustics and Tim Willams who plays the blues perhaps even better and who is incredibly knowledgeable about who sang the originals. Unfortunately neither of the CDs captures their live performances.
It was a cool weekend. For the Friday night show I had on all of my shirts, sweaters and a jacket. But the days were comfortable and it is such a pleasure to walk around, visiting with people, watching little kids play and to listen to fine music.
There appears to be a major difference between the programs at the festivals in the east or in the west. In both Ontario and BC they have in the daytime the same type of performers. In fact I have on a number of occasions seen the same performer at Shelter Valley near Grafton Ontario one August and then seen them at Providence Farm the following summer (or vice versa). However in Ontario they are more likely to have the acts perform on the main stage at night and then during the day play with other performers (workshops) on the smaller stages. At Providence Farm almost all of the acts perform solo regardless of where they play.. Even more noticeably at Providence Farm while the first one or two acts of the evening may be singer song writers, by the time the sun sets, it is all about dance bands. There is a huge plastic tarp nailed to the ground in front of the main stage and everyone is dancing to the drums etc. of the large ensembles. Those who don't want to dance- go to bed.
Personally, I would perfer to listen to good music.
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