Here Comes the Calgary

A cattle-ranching frontier since the late 1800s, Calgary, Alberta sprawls near the Canadian Rocky Mountain Foothills in an area that supplies a significant portion of the country’s beef – hence, the city’s nickname of ‘Cow Town’.

For this reason, music-themed bovines are a prominent motif at Calgary Folk Fest. Yet the festival is anything but small or old-fashioned. Founded in 1980, it began as a two-day event with three stages. Today it has evolved into a four-day extravaganza on seven stages that for its 45th anniversary in July welcomed 53,000 attendees. Over the years, Calgary Folk Festival has hosted a who’s who of musical luminaries and this year, its extensive, inclusive lineup included 70 artists from Canada and around the globe from Cowboy Junkies to Niger’s Etran L'Aïr to James Vincent McMurrow to The Roots.

The festival is held on Prince’s Island on the Bow River, linked by bridges to downtown Calgary. It’s an idyllic setting, from where you can admire the city centre’s gleaming skyscrapers, dance under enormous Balsam Poplars and also commune along the riverbanks. When twilight descends, the festival takes on a magical quality as string lights twinkle overhead alongside the stars.

But above all, the magic abounds in the music. New to me was a tradition practised in western Canada’s folk festivals: unrehearsed sessions in which three to four bands or artists are programmed on the same stage; musicians versed in often widely divergent traditions are tasked with making music together for an hour. As one festival volunteer cheerfully explained, “Sometimes the workshops are a disaster, but when they work, they’re amazing!”

I marvelled at these sessions, as musicians took turns leading the jams. Soweto’s Buntu Continua Uhuru Consciousness (BCUC) shared the stage with Palestinian electro-dabke trio 47 Soul and Ontario’s Anishinaabeg drumming and choral group, Niimki and the Niniis. When BCUC’s lead singer cried out about rising again and again despite struggles and loss, the other two ensembles joined with shouts and chants that soared as if to witness the resilience of their people. BCUC, again, this time in combination with Austin’s Black Joe Lewis and Oakland, California’s Fantastic Negrito, connected musical dots in searing, funky blues riffs. Winnipeg’s Mexican-Canadian Mariachi Ghost and Marseille trio Zar Elektrik along with BIM (Benin International Musical) found beautiful synergy in the ancestral sways of the Afro-Mexican son jarocho. Guatemala’s Quiché Mayan Sara Curruchich, alongside Ukrainian Maryna Krut, Eastern Canadian folk and bluegrass duo Mama’s Broke and Canadian-Korean Luna Li shared the divine feminine in glorious harmonies encased in fiddles and bandura. I felt immensely privileged to experience the emergence of these unique musical communions.

In the festival’s charming mix of cultural cowboy/sophisticated hippie vibes, the immense corps of volunteers —1,600 strong this year— is evident as the centre and power of a festival truly beloved by its community. Indeed, many of the younger attendees are third-generation festival-goers, grandchildren of Calgary Fest’s original group of volunteers.

Just west of the island, Santiago Calatrava’s Peace Bridge spans the Bow River. The pedestrian bridge boasts a helix-shaped red and white tubular steel design that symbolises connecting communities. The city landmark is also a shining reminder of Calgary Folk Fest’s spirit of uniting people in the celebration of our common humanity through music.