The 2018 Folk on the Rocks festival will feature a lineup that not only includes female performers, but puts an emphasis on having both women and transgender artists play a leading role in the act.
“As a woman in the music industry I definitely feel underrepresented and I know a lot of artists that I work with feel the same way and so I think it was really important to us to sort of help increase that representation,” said Carly Bradley, the festival's executive director.
“Our festival lineup has been pretty male heavy the last few years so we wanted to flip that around and bring back a little more gender balance to our festival.”
Those female leads include both acts from within the territory and from Southern Canada. Popular local artist Tanya Tagaq will headline Warm the Rocks on Friday evening, before Whitehorse and Stars, both who feature female leads, will close out Saturday and Sunday Respectively.
Also on the bill are local female artists Andrea Bettger, Carmen Braden and Yellowknifer’s own Avery Zingel.
Coming in town for the weekend include Abigail Lapell, The Courtneys and The Weather Station.
“I feel like there are so many incredibly talented women in the Canadian music industry as well as globally and I feel like I could've booked 60 or 70 amazing acts but of course we have time constraint and a budget,” said Bradley.
The gender parity is one more way that the board of directors is looking to keep the festival exciting as it enters its 38th year of operations, said Bradley.
The board is always looking to keep the festival interesting to attract the best talent possible, especially in a year that saw two high-profile board members, Ryan Fequet and Andrew Livingstone, resign.
“Of course we miss Ryan and Andrew a ton but both of them left on great terms, both of them will be here to party with us throughout the weekend. And they actually left at a pretty good time, a lot of the boards job is through the fall and winter and putting together that sort of overall vision of the festival and then I execute it at this time,” said Bradley.
“As far as keeping southern artists wanting to come up, I think it’s a really unique opportunity, I think a lot of them view it that way and we also try to when they’re here to do some really special things that showcase the north and how beautiful it is.
Outside of the music, those attending the festival this year will see both familiar and new faces around the food and drink section. This year The Sweet Stop will feature the return of Taco in a Bag, mini donuts and Saffron Food Truck as well as newcomer Noodo Monster food truck and the beer garden will once again feature brews from Big Rock Brewery.
“We’re still with big rock and this is our ninth year working them as a sponsor, they’re super good to us,” said Bradley. “Then for food vendors we have 13 food vendors this year, some who have been coming for years, such as saffron and mini donuts – and then we also have Noodo monster which is new, and it's going to be delicious.”
Between the music and the food will be a number of artisan vendors and non-profits handing out information on the different causes happening around town.
“We have tons of artisan vendors this year, both returns and new people, so yeah some really exciting crafters,” said Bradley. “We have creations back this year, they always do some really beautiful stuff and Rhiannon White, last year she did temporary tattoos especially designed for Folk, and she’s bringing those back again.”
In terms of the non-profits, this year Calgary Sexual Health and the Safety Squad will once again be on site to run safety orientations and bystander intervention training.
Bradley says that there will also be additional garbage and recycling bins placed in the forest beside the Folk site to ensure those that want to enjoy the outdoors, before they head in for the music, will have loads of opportunities to dispose of their trash. This comes a year after there was a dispute over whose responsibility it was to clean up the area after the festival was finished.
“Although it’s not officially Folk on the Rocks property we do have some new dumpsters and recycling bins going out there this year so we're working really hard to encourage people to use those as opposed to just leaving their garbage out there when they're done having a good time out in the woods,” said Bradley.