I spoke with Canmore Folk Music Festival Artistic Director Sue Panning about a fantastic live stream concert they’re a part of this Thursday, June 18th.

 

Rob: This Thursday, there’s something really exciting that you’re partnering on. What’s going on?

Sue: We’re doing a live stream from artsPlace with the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. They were looking for people across the country, festivals venues to be putting on live stream shows through Facebook, and they’re calling it the Road to Canada Day. So the National Arts Centre is doing a big thing on Canada Day and they were just trying to show how there’s venues across the country and music going on across the country. We were chosen and we’re doing a live stream at 7:30, this Thursday with Amelie Patterson from Banff and John Wort Hannam with Scott Duncan and he’s living the Lethbridge right now. So showcasing the kind of music that the festival plays. We’re really excited to be actually presenting something, beause we haven’t since COVID hit.

Rob: Is it going to be actually live?

Sue: Yeah, they’ll be performing live. There won’t be an audience. We’re going to limit the number of people there so it’s just the techs, but it will be live. People can comment and ask questions. It’s meant to be really engaging with the artists. People can look at our Facebook site and it’ll be there.

Rob: Why these two particular artists?

Sue: I wanted to pick someone that was very much local and Amelie’s played our festival a couple of times. She’s really been doing a lot in terms of touring and being involved in lots of mentorship sessions and whatnot. She’s played here and she’s played Calgary. She’s played a whole bunch of festivals in B.C. and we thought it’d be really nice to showcase someone from the Bow Valley. Then John, he’s such a wonderful songwriter, he’s such a great storyteller, and we thought a person that lives kind of in the Southern Alberta region, he would be a really good one to feature as a representation of the kind of music that the Folk Festival presents.

Rob: The Canmore Folk Music Festival is not happening this year as originally scheduled. What’s your team been working on instead?

Sue: We’re working on a few things. We’re trying to have something happen each of the days of the weekend. We’re working with CKUA, we’re working with you guys at Mountain FM, and we’re working on presenting a video that features a bunch of artists over the weekend. We’re just working out the details right now, but we’re definitely going to be planning something for each of the days over the weekend.

Filed under: Amelie Patterson, artsPlace, Canmore, Canmore Folk Music Festival