After the final curtain call of the 49th NL Folk Festival last summer, the event’s future seemed uncertain. However, a fundraiser performance held at the St. John’s Convention Centre on June 7 may enable the historic Folk Fest to reach its golden anniversary.
Since the closure of the NL Folk Arts Society’s physical office last November, the organization has worked tirelessly to keep its spirit alive.
‘Friends of the Festival,’ a performance event showcasing different styles of folk music, was created to both showcase Newfoundland’s folk music scene and to act as a fundraiser to return Folk Fest to its former glory.
During the event, VOCM host Greg Smith announced to the audience that the Folk Arts Society had amassed a $50,000 debt. While the fundraiser did not quite eliminate the society’s debt entirely, Friends of the Festival did successfully raise over $45,000, enough to put the 50th Folk Festival back on the table for 2026.
While the look of this year’s Folk Festival is still uncertain, the NL Folk Arts Society is aiming to be in Bannerman Park for Saturday, August 8th; while it may not be the three-day event that it was last year, people were nonetheless delighted to hear the festival will be returning.
After their performance, The Muse caught up with three former members of the iconic Newfoundland folk-rock band Figgy Duff – Kelly Russell, Pamela Morgan, and Dave Panting – to reflect on their own history with Folk Fest, going all the way back to its first running.
“I think the first year, there was probably a handful of people there in the audience,” Russell explained, “and now it’s big crowds. It’s great to see something grow over time like that.”
Panting shared a similar statement, acknowledging that “it’s not 1975 anymore…but you can see by the crowd that the feeling is still there, and people of different ages too.”
While Russell admits he does not know the exact details of the society’s financial situation, he believes Folk Fest should continue in some capacity: “I think it’s an important component of the fabric of our society here, and dare I say our culture. We’re a lot less without it.”
The 50th Folk Festival’s appearance is still being determined; no acts have been officially announced to perform at Bannerman Park. Nonetheless, each of the three Figgy Duff members is hoping to get the invitation. When asked if they would play together again, Morgan chimed in, saying, “You never know.”
While the Figgy Duff trio’s history with Folk Fest runs deep, Montreal-born artist Zaynab Wilson has never performed at the festival, while her cellist, Amy Collyer-Holmes, has previously played with folk-rock band Lady Lupin.
However, the duo did play together earlier that week in the 16th running of Lawnya Vawnya, another music festival that focuses on independent artists of all genres.
When asked to compare Lawnya Vawnya to Friends of the Festival, Wilson found the two events to have more in common than what appears on the surface, noting how both events bring together communities, just “different demographics, but we kinda played the same music.” Collyer-Holmes confirmed that the duo had played the same set of music at both events.
Collyer-Holmes continued, “It’s just a really special place to gather with friends who play music, who enjoy music, and lots of generations at both of those festivals.” Regarding Folk Fest specifically, the cellist explained, “No one wants to see it go away, it’s so special to so many people for a lot of reasons.”
Much like Russell, Morgan, and Panting, Wilson and Collyer-Holmes hope to receive an invitation to this year’s Folk Fest. “Maybe we’ll be at the 100th [Folk Fest]”, Collyer-Holmes chuckled to Wilson.
No matter how far the NL Folk Festival goes, its future tentatively appears to be saved by a simple concept that an old Simani song once covered: music and friends.
