The Canmore Folk Music Festival will never be the same – gone are the days of sitting for the entire evening and enjoying the music.
Both Saturday and Sunday (July 30-31) headlining performances ended with masses of dancing crowds in front of the stage, trampling the spaces of those who had waited in line for hours, despite the futile efforts of security volunteers.
The dancing was anticipated, however, said operations coordinator Carol Picard.
“We weren’t sure the first night, because it’s been such a mellow festival, but we knew the music we were putting on and a lot of younger people had come specifically for those bands, so we knew there’d be dancing,” she said, speaking Monday afternoon (Aug. 1).
“(Sunday) night we warned people all day from the stage, ‘those people sitting in the front, we’ve got Delhi 2 Dublin tonight, there will be coming up front to dance’.”
People were startled the first night, however, said Picard.
“This doesn’t usually happen at our festival – people who are used to treating music as a spectator sport, they will sit in their chairs all night and listen to music and applaud and it’s very mellow and it’s great,” she explained. “They were startled when the younger people got something that they wanted to dance to.
“I think it was a joyous experience to watch the whole field dancing. What we’re seeing here is a transition, from really traditional folk music crowd to the next generation’s folk music. We’re presenting folk music for younger people.”
She also noted there were no complaints made to the police and St. John’s Ambulance reported no injuries resulting from the dancing.
Artistic director Sue Panning noted this has happened in the past.
“It has happened. The first time Spirit of the West played here, and when the Ducks were here it happened, it’s by no means the first time,” she said. “Typically, this audience is one that is used to sitting down – I think with a younger audience, coming in and dancing up front is the preferred thing.”
Changes may come in the future as a result, she said.
“We’re going to listen to people and then we’re going to see,” said Panning. “We want this to be a festival lots of people can enjoy.”
Delhi 2 Dublin frontman Sanjay Seran was ecstatic to see the crowd rise up and dance.
“That’s all we know, so if they’re sitting and we’re playing for a sitting audience, that’s weird for us,” he said Sunday following the band’s performance. “If they had sat, it would have pissed us off.
“And if it pisses people off that people were standing, sorry but that’s not what we do. It’s music – if you want to dance, you got to be free to dance.”
Seran related a story he had heard about his band’s performance.
“Someone told me a story today; there was a lady who was in a wheelchair sitting in the back, and by our third song she got her kids to get her up,” he said. “She said, ‘get me up,’ and she had her kids holding her up and she was bouncing. If that can happen, that was such a heartwarming story to hear and that’s what it’s about.”
While some complaints were received, they were far outweighed by the praise, said Picard.
“Yes, we’ve received complaints, but the ratio of praise to complaints is about 15 to one,” she said. “I’m sorry if anybody was upset by that, I don’t want to see people not come back, but really, we don’t want music to be treated like a spectator sport.
“In my opinion, dancing should be mandatory at folk festivals.”
As both the organizers and attendees are aging, the introduction of the dance bands was a move to bring new blood to the festival, she said.
“We looked at our demographics, with a greying of an audience, and there comes a point in time where if you’re not replenishing with younger people, then you’re going to shrink,” said Picard. “If you look at the coordinating committee, the people who do hundreds of hours of volunteer time for this festival, we’re all 50 plus. We’re tired. Where’s the younger generation? Where are the people we’re going to hand it off to?
“For us to continue this festival and make it continually be alive and new and changing and successful, we need young bodies, and to get them here we need to play their music.”
With about 500 volunteers involved in the festival, Picard stressed their importance.
“Our volunteer base this year is really strong, really young, very keen, very passionate, very excited to be part of this event,” she said.
