The Edmonton Folk Music Festival has built a reputation of having big name artists and the festival is continuing that tradition this year.
The lineup for the 38th edition of the music festival was released Wednesday and organizers say it’ll have something for just about every musical taste.
Festival producer Terry Wickham said the strength of this year’s folk fest is the gospel and soul music.
Some of the more well-known names include Leon Bridges, City and Colour, Brandi Carlile and The Decemberists.
“Leon Bridges is a big star and getting bigger. He’s going to close Saturday night,” Wickham said.
“The McCrary Sisters, there’s Anderson East, St. Paul & The Broken Bones are going to close the show on Sunday night and they’re great. There’s just lots of horns, lots of energy.”
Wickham hopes fans will have a more enjoyable time this year by being able to access beer and toilets more easily. The festival will have a larger beer garden and 30 per cent more portable toilets. Music goers have complained in years past about the long lineups for toilets and beer.
Wickham said capacity of beer tents will increase from 2,300 to 3,500 people.
“As I say to our staff all the time, I get to skip all the lineups with the special pass but you have to put yourself in the shoes of the patrons,” Wickham said.
“Thursday night was a problem last year. It won’t be a problem this year. We’ve rejigged that.”
Wickham said the expansion of the beer tent will allow about 2,000 people inside of it to watch the performers on stage one.
This year’s Folk Fest is taking place Aug. 10 to 13 at Gallagher Park, with tickets going on sale this Sunday.
Tickets usually go on sale on Saturday but venue availability prevented that from happening this year, although Wickham said he doesn’t expect there to be a drop off in interest because of the change of day.
Other artists at this year’s folk festival include Solo, Lakou Mizik, Shakey Graves, Rhiannon Giddens, Ricky Scaggs & Kentucky Thunder, Foy Vance, La Santa Cecilia, Ashley Maclsacc & Cape Breton’s Finest, Amadou & Miriam, Shovels & Rope, and St. Paul & The Broken Bones.
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