ROB MURRAY: I’m speaking with Sue Panning, Artistic Director for the Canmore Folk Music Festival. You have announced some details on what you’re going to be doing in lieu of the full festival here over the August long weekend. What can you tell us about your DIY Online Festival?

SUE PANNING: It’s a temporary website that we’re creating from July 31st until about September 25th. It’s basically a website that has a page for concerts and another page for workshops which are such a favorite of a live festival. We’ll have a family area page, which is a partnership with artsPlace, then we’ll have a page for food vendors and for artisans. It’s kind of a do-it-yourself thing. We know live music is going to be going on here and there. We hope over that time people will have a look and see, and then they can watch it over a bunch of days or create their own playlist of shows.

RM: I guess, in a way, it’s kind of like the real Folk Fest. You sort of get to pick and choose what workshops you want to attend and what shows you want to see.

SP: Sure. We wanted to do something different than what we did last year. We were heartbroken to have to do another virtual event, so we wanted to do something a little bit different, and I think it’s a good option.

RM: With the major structural repairs needed to the Stan Rogers Stage, it’s almost a blessing in disguise that you weren’t able to do a festival this year.

SP: That’s for sure. It certainly would have caused a lot of stress, and it definitely is lucky that it wasn’t a normal year where we would have to figure some alternative out.

RM: Who are some of the musicians you’ve lined up for this DIY Fest?

SP: We have Bella White from Calgary, who’s in the bluegrass/country realm. She’s making a real splash down in Nashville so I thought that would be cool to have her. We have an East Coast connection with Catherine MacLellan, Dennis Ellsworth, as well as Irish Mythen who’s been at our festival a few times and played artsPlace, and is just such a performer. Uh, we have Cecile Doo-Kingue who’s been with us a few times, an amazing blues artist out of Montreal. We have Calgary artist Emily Triggs. We have local Lori Reid. We have The Slocan Ramblers out of Toronto – they were slated to play our 2020 festival before it was canceled so we’re happy to have them on board. Sultans of String is a trio that does wonderful instrumental tunes, and they’ve featured a whole bunch of refugees that have come from various places in the world. Susie Vinnick, who also had played Canmore a few times, a blues artist out of Ontario. Locals Trundled, and Wyatt C. Louis who’s an Indigenous artist out of Calgary. Twelve artists, they’re each is going to be doing a 20 minute concert set, and then I’ve paired a bunch of them up to do workshops. We have six different workshops based on themes that are kind of pandemic related, you know, Silver Linings, The Sun Will Come Out, that sort of thing. Then we have a family area page. It’s an artsPlace partnership. They have a bunch of videos that they created with a bunch of talented local artists and educators. They have some crafts videos and then a bunch of songs – Grizzly Bear Shakedown is one of them. Ellen Braun, her song “Okay” is featured on there.

RM: How is the artisan and food vendor online area going to work?

SP: We have had so many people supporting us over the years, so it’s a page to honour people that have come to the festival before or given us in-kind donations. There’ll be a description, a picture, and a link to their websites. We’re also going to have our own merchandise available. We have a really cool graphic – it’s a sun with a bear hanging off the end of our logo. It’s kind of a nod back to the retro poster, I don’t know if you’ll remember Rob, “Hang In There”, I think it was a cat hanging off of a branch or something. Next year is our 45th. It’s kind of pointing to that – let’s hang in there. We’re hoping to do something live later in September – we’re working on that. A pop-up shop should be up on our website soon ifpeople want to get the festival merch for our weekend, and then it’ll close, then it’ll be open again over the August Long.

RM: You’re putting this on with a little help and support from some organizations?

SP: We couldn’t do it without TD. We also have Canadian Heritage, SOCAN Foundation, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Rotary Club of Canmore. Then, of course, there’s generous donations by people that tune in. We’re offering it up for free and hoping that if people have the means they’ll give a donation just to help us plan for a seller 45th and keep the organization strong for a long time.

Filed under: Canmore, Canmore Folk Music Festival