CANMORE – No one is trying to string you along this year – the 42nd annual Canmore Folk Music Festival lineup is out and this time, Bow Valley locals will be taking the main stage.
The festival lineup was released Monday (April 1) touting sound from the Jerry Cans, Bon Débarras and Connie Kaldor, as well as locals like Phillip Alexander Nugent, Alanna J Brown, and taking the main stage for the first time – The Wardens.
The three-member band includes Scott Ward, Bradley Bischoff and Ray Schmidt, all Canmore locals, who’ve been playing together for ten years. Ward, who plays six-string guitar and does vocals for The Wardens, said the band is very excited to be playing on the Stan Rogers Memorial stage.
“We’re really excited about that,” he said. “We’re from the Bow Valley here – we live in Canmore. Brad and I are retired national park wardens from Banff National Park and Ray is a current park warden in Glacier National Park.”
The band has recorded three albums and is working on their fourth. Ward describes their sound as pure folk.
“We like to call it mountain music,” he said.
Canmore Folk Music Festival director, Sue Panning, said she’s glad to see a local band make it to the big stage.”
“Really happy to have our local band the Wardens get a main stage spot,” she said.
“They’ve been all touring around western Canada, down in the states, in Washington, Oregon, California. We’re really happy to have them on the Stan Rogers stage.”
With The Wardens will be no shortage of a good mountain theme. In fact, Ward said much of their inspiration comes from the experiences they had while working in the parks and the band started as a result of “a sort of warden centennial in Banff [that] wanted some entertainment.”
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“A lot of [our] stories and songs [are] based on our experiences working in the mountain parks here, things from mountain rescue to bear management to back country patrols by horseback,” said Ward.
Meanwhile, other locals like Nugent who just released a new single called “Almost Perfect” which can be found on Spotify or iTunes, will also be playing at the festival, furthering that sense of togetherness that only music can bring.
“I am excited to play the festival,” he said. “It is one of my favourite festivals I’ve been to, so it is good to see my name on the poster.”
Panning said her team is really excited about all of the acts from near or far that’ll be gracing Bow Valley eardrums with their melodies.
“We’re really excited to be finished the full lineup, it’s really exciting it’s a bit more rootsy this year but we’ve got this great eclectic mix of music” she said.
“It’s a really good, strong lineup.”
The gates open on Saturday Aug. 3 at 3:30 p.m. and runs until Monday evening at 9 p.m. If you can’t get tickets for the main festival, you can still get into some treble on Friday, Aug. 2, where a free show will take the stage at a local pub. As well, a free pancake breakfast will be held on Monday Aug. 5 right beside Miners’ Union Hall.
You can find out more about the lineup and events at www.canmorefolkfestival.com.
