The 47th Annual Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival!

This is the 47th annual folk festival offered in St. John's, Newfoundland by the Newoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society.  The mission of the Society (and the festival) is to promote and preserve traditional folk arts of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Active since 1966, the organization presents educational and cultural events that provide artists with the opportunity to showcase their work and that engage youth and the general public in the transmission of their intangible cultural heritage.

When we were here in 2018, we missed attending the festival, and resolved that, on this second trip to Newfoundland, we would schedule our travels to be in St. John's for the festival.  We weren't disappointed!

Luckily, we are camped in Pippy Park, which is close to downtown St. John's, permitting us to choose whether to walk or take a taxi to and from the Folk Festival.  Because of forecasts of impending rain, we generally took taxicabs -- although, once we learned that the weather gods were smiling on the festival (and us), and that the forecasts were baloney, we did get a chance to walk down to the festival today.

Here is a photo of Kathy waiting for our usual taxicab at the entrance to our campground --

 

 

-- and here is a view of the main stage of the festival at its opening on Friday night, July 7, 2023.  Friday was the rainiest of the days, with only a blowy mist that occasionally made everyone bundle up -- but never really got us wet:

 

 

Even so, we were fully prepared for the downpours!

 

 

Friday night offered an emphasis on indigenous folk music and dance, with performances by drums, dancing and throat singing by Kilautiup Songuninga (shown below) --

 

 

-- and a spectacular brother-sister duo, Sechile Sedare, comprised of singer-songwriters Leela Gilday and Jay Gilday

Some traditional Newfie folk music was also provided by popular Jim Payne & Fergus Byrne:

We left before the night ended in order to get a good night's sleep, because, on Saturday morning, we had plans to shop at Urban Market 1919, where we picked up all sorts of specialty treats and beers, before heading over to the St. John's Farmers Market for breakfast and shopping for produce and more specialty goods:

After lunch, back it was to the Folk Festival, where by far the most interesting performer was Jing Xia, who offered a spectacular performance on the classic Chinese instrument, the guzheng:

The guzheng is a Chinese plucked zither. It commonly has 21, 25, or 26 strings, is 5.3 feet long, and is tuned in a major pentatonic scale. It has a large, resonant soundboard and is impressive to hear.

Today (Sunday) was the last day of the Folk Festival, and we tried to make it the best.  We arrived first thing, and stationed ourselves at the Neil Murray Stage to hear a full lineup of new, young talent.  The most impressive was a group called Trinity Sound (the name is a play on the bay called Trinity Sound, where they are from):

Trinity Sound focuses on songs ranging from traditional folk tunes to the latest top 40 hits, played with traditional instruments such as violin, mandolin, bodhran, and guitar.  The lead singer, Mackenzie Elliot, absolutely knocked us out with her performance of the Cranberries' "Zombies."  With apparently little effort, she duplicated Dolores O'Riordan's lilting vocals, and the arrangement had the band backing her perfectly.

One complaint we had about the festival is that it has become such an event that many people seem to attend just to attend.  As a consequence, there was a lot of loud chattering in the audience.  We were there to hear the music.  So we finally found a solution and posted ourselves in a secluded area of the beer garden, where we could hear perfectly without crowd noise:

Oh, and it didn't hurt that the Quidi Vidi Brewery people kept coming over and inviting us to the hourly free beer tastings!

We're sad that the festival is over.  We really enjoyed it.  The music was fabulous, and the festival gave us a chance to experience a real slice of St. John's life.  We feel, this visit, that we're having a chance to talk to and understand the Newfoundlanders in a deeper way.  We love and respect what we've found.  They are, as culture, among the friendliest, most outwardly cheerful and helpful people.  Their lives are simple and their relationships direct and warm.  Our sadness at having the festival end warned us that we will be even sadder when we leave this island in September.