Regina’s great summer music event is rebuilding. You can help
Giving Tuesday | Stephen Whitworth
Whether you’re a live music lover, a festival fan or a community fun-enjoyer, you probably noticed the vexing vacancy in this past summer’s events calendar.
No Regina Folk Festival.
In 2024, this city’s singular summer highlight succumbed to the same fiscal shortfalls battering arts organizations across the continent. Yes, lockdowns are over and masking is optional, but the Covid pandemic is still wreaking havoc. For one thing, it left cultural groups drowning in seas of red ink.
Worse, audiences have been slow to return to in-person events, which has further stalled recovery.
That didn’t mean the Folk folks just sat on their hands doing nothing. The RFF still put on a great show — the Skygazer Soirée — that brought Chantal Kreviazuk, Aysanabee, the Great Lake Swimmers, Belle Plaine and more to the Conexus Arts Centre to mitigate the collective sadness of fest-forlorn audiences, as well as raise needed funds.
But still, the absence of the downtown’s signature event was hard to take. For a lot of Queen City citizens, the Regina Folk Festival is the highlight every August. Great bands, a terrific market with great vendors and awesome food and food trucks, and an unreal atmosphere of cheerful revelry define the three-day event which brings thousands of music lovers province-wide into the Saskatchewan capital’s centre.
And the artists! Just since the turn of the century the RFF has presented k.d. lang, Ani DiFranco, Neko Case, Charles Bradley, Tegan and Sara, Feist, Steve Earle, Michael Franti, Andy Shauf and hundreds more—probably closer to 1,000, if we reckon 30–40 artists a year.
Plus friendly people, happy children, cute dogs and other pets hanging around the free daytime stages — you can’t beat it.
But you know what? You can help it.
And Giving Tuesday is the perfect time to support the RFF ahead of next summer’s festival.
Music On Mute
“The live music sector in Canada — but also all over North America, Europe; everywhere — has been deeply impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic and continues to be,” says Amber Goodwyn, the Regina Folk Festival’s artistic director.
“We’ve seen terrible live music association reports, like a 60 per cent revenue decline across the industry,” says Goodwyn. “We’ve seen festivals close and venues struggle because production costs and fees have all inflated but audiences are slow to return.
“The revenue and expenses aren’t matching up. It’s been a real challenge,” she says.
It’s been a particular challenge for the RFF’s board of directors and staff.
“Making it through the last few years has really eaten away at our reserves,” says Goodwyn.
“We took the year 2024 off our regular programming — we had what we’ve been calling a fallow year,” says Goodwyn. “We rebuilt resources and strategized what the festival’s going to look like in 2025 and beyond. The industry is so changed. What is a sustainable format for the Regina Folk Festival for the next 55 years?”
Goodwyn has an idea what that format looks like. But for the moment, it’s top secret.
“We’re not ready to share those plans just yet,” she says. “However, one important part of stabilizing the festival is for the community to support us, to donate to us, and to donate meaningfully — according to their means, of course.”
Goodwyn is confident it will happen.
“You know, we took the year off. We’re going to re-announce the festival. There’s going to be some changes and we’re really excited to be back in Victoria Park next summer. Until then, we’re encouraging people to donate before Dec. 31 — we automatically generate tax receipts for donations of $20 or more.”
Music and the arts aren’t the self-sustaining entities free-market fanatics might think. Culture needs infrastructure, both built (like a live music venue) and human. And when we have artistic infrastructure, we need to invest in its upkeep. If we don’t maintain it, it breaks.
And as any homeowner with a flooded basement or leaking roof knows, broken infrastructure is a lot more expensive to fix than it is to maintain.
The Regina Folk Festival is a core component of Regina’s music infrastructure, and if we want this city to be livable, it — and institutions like it — need support.
Goodwyn agrees.
“The Regina Folk Festival works as a professional event, because it’s an important training ground and networking site for local musicians and technicians, connecting them with the broader music industry,” says Goodwyn. “It has established itself professionally on a national and international scale, and that kind of work doesn’t happen overnight. It takes building of trust-based professional relationships over time.
“The festival has a grassroots history, firmly planted in community, with generations of people growing up with the event,” concludes Goodwyn. “It’s a proven concept in Regina that has adapted over the years, remaining an excellent place for audiences to access world-class music.
“It’s not a cultural institution that would be easily replaced,” she says.
You can support the Regina Folk Festival at its website here.