Vancouver Folk Music Festival announces it's back on track for July 14 to 16 in Jericho Beach Park
After cancelling this year’s outdoor event, the fest’s new board has enough fresh funding to happen
AFTER ALMOST dissolving its entire organization earlier this year, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival has just announced it has rebounded and is preparing to hold an event this summer.
So mark your calendar for July 14 to 16, when the outdoor concert is set to take place at Jericho Beach Park.
It’s been a wild ride resurrecting the 45-year-old festival, which almost went under last month. On January 17, the VFMF announced that it would not only be cancelling this summer’s festival, but holding an Annual General Meeting to dissolve the entire organization. It blamed rising costs in the wake of the pandemic, with competition for some of its basic requirements, such as tents and portable toilets, increasing from industries like construction and film production. The folk fest reported increased costs of anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent from the previous year.
The news was met with a massive public outcry and action to try to save the longtime Vancouver tradition that kicked off in Stanley Park in 1978. Since its founding, the event had grown to become one of Canada’s most successful folk fests, drawing more than 30,000 to 40,000 people each summer before the pandemic hit. By early February, advocates had joined forces, and the motion to dissolve the society was withdrawn.
The biggest boost came with the announcement on February 16 from the provincial government that it would inject $30 million into festivals still suffering in the wake of the pandemic. The infusion was a repeat of the one-time Festivals, Fairs and Events Recovery Fund that had been announced in 2021—an initiative the folk fest had credited for its ability to host a 2022 concert event at all.
“Last month’s funding announcement by the BC government was a game changer for the festival,” said newly appointed folk festival board president Erin Mullan in a statement today. “This new funding, combined with the strong support of our other funders, partners, other festivals, and the community at large, means we can hold a 2023 festival.”
Now, a new board of directors made up of both returning and first-time members has met multiple times since an AGM to try to save the organization. It announced today in a statement that its “plan is to use the 2022 festival as a template for this year’s festival”. Following a two-year pandemic pause, the festival ran at a reduced scale in 2022. It decreased the number of daytime stages; had shorter hours; offered 20 fewer musical groups; and had no kitchen for volunteers and artists, no Folk Bazaar, and no West Gate.
The new board added today:
“In the past month new funders have come forward with substantial offers to help the festival happen this year. In addition, we have had an outpouring of volunteer support to assist in many aspects of getting the festival organized and launched. Other festivals have stepped up to assist with booking performers – artists and other festivals benefit when our Vancouver festival is healthy.”
The news is a stark turnaround from January, when the VFMF society said that even if it were to get a “surprise” infusion of funds, it would be too late to produce the large-scale, multistage, outdoor concert this summer. At that time, former VFMF board president Mark Zuberbuhler said it would take anywhere from $400,000 to $600,000 to make a 2023 fest happen—and the VFMF would need that level of financial infusion every year going forward.
In its announcement today, the VFMF put out a call for monthly personal donations to the organization, which it’s collecting via its website. Those regular commitments would help build sustainability for the organization, VFMF said.
No programming for this summer’s event has been set yet, but the fest board has said it’s working with an advisory group of programmers from other folk festivals and would have announcements soon.
The festival’s board is now cochaired by Mullan with Anne Blaine; its other members are Nimmi Takkar, Melinda Suto, Fiona Black, Yee Chan, Jeff Finger, FiL Hemming, Tess Kitchen, Amy Newman, and Christina Price. 
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