(Photo by Amy of the bubble fun that always takes place among the audience at the Winnipeg Folk Fest main stage, from 2008)
Today was the day that the Winnipeg Folk Fest announced its lineup. This always gets Amy excited, Last year, I read her some of the highlights from a newspaper article while we coffee’d in a Starbucks, and she slapped her palm down on the table and shouted “shut UP!” she was so thrilled. That was for Iron and Wine, who fulfilled her excitement with a great performance last year.
This year’s performer list looks, if anything, better and more exciting than last year. Some of the names that made Amy go “squeeeee!” on her Facebook are, Andrew Bird, The Avett Brothers, Emmylou Harris, The Swell Season and Sarah Harmer, but there’s too many to list here.
But I’ve always appreciated Winnipeg Folk Festival for the opportunity to explore new-to-me artists as well, and it’s some of the names I don’t yet recognize that intrigue me the most.
I’m considering a 100-day blogging project, wherein I (and perhaps Amy) explore each of the artists coming to Folk Fest, and post about each of them individually. With 65 artists currently on the list (and they often tweak the list, adding a few as they get contracts signed) that’s more than one every other day. That’s ambitious, I know, since it would include listening to albums and trying to be fairly good about giving them the consideration they’re due.
Are readers interested in that scope of a project? Or is it too far outside what Absurd Intellectual is to you? I’d also consider dropping a few emails/phone calls in the right direction to see if I could score interviews with some of the performers. (Shout-out here to Curtis at Endless Spin, who has done an excellent job on the political front with his candidate interviews during the provincial NDP leadership race and the recent byelection in his home riding.)
One year I covered the Winnipeg Folk Festival in a moderate way for the Brandon Sun, and while a press pass had its advantages, lugging a laptop and camera gear from stage to stage wasn’t exactly the best way to spend the weekend. So Amy’s kiboshed any live-blogging of the festival this year, but I could probably get behind some tweeting, if I can ever get my phone set up.
Thoughts?
