Canadian icons Blue Rodeo and Ben Harper were revealed as two headliners of the Edmonton Folk Fest, which will take place this summer. The event is celebrating its 35th anniversary this year.
Blue Rodeo will be promoting one of their most popular albums, Five Days In July, which includes hits like “Hasn’t Hit Me Yet” and “Bad Timing.”
Michael Franti, James Vincent McMorrow, Imelda May, and Lucius are also on the bill of the annual event, which is hosted at downtown Edmonton’s Gallagher Park.
“In the past, I think I’ve been more conservative than most (folk festivals), but I think we’re now a lot more open to new talent,” said producer Terry Wickham to the Edmonton Journal. He added (to Gigcity), “I’ve made it my goal, in fact one of the credos that I live by, that I don’t tell musicians how to play… Should we use electricity? There was the whole argument about Bob Dylan and Newport, and you can argue that if there were electric guitars 100 years ago, people would’ve used them. Am I more drawn to acoustic instruments like mandolin? Absolutely. Can a few slip by me, like Phosphorescent or Delhi2Dublin? Absolutely. And there’s room for that. I think you can be a folk festival with an edge. But that’s different than having an edge festival with some folk thrown into it.”
Tickets for the Edmonton Folk Fest go on sale on June 7th, and the event runs from August 7-10. You can purchase tickets on the Edmonton Folk Fest website or through Ticketmaster. Tickets usually sell out, however event organizers are still looking for volunteers.
Photo: Blue Rodeo
