Joel Graham has been working as a volunteer and employee at Regina Folk Festival (RFF) for seven years. He says the tight-knit group almost “becomes like family.”
This year, one of his former co-workers will actually become his family. After sharing an office wall for years, Graham and his fiance Haley Bolen are getting married two weeks after the August festival.
“Haley used to bomb elastics over the wall at me, so we started to get to know each other,” Graham said. “It started as friends and blossomed into a lot more than that.”
Graham and Bolen both started working at RFF in 2012. Bolen grew up in a musical environment and Graham is passionate about musical production. The love of music helped bond the couple.
The couple is taking the summer off from volunteering in order to prepare for the wedding. But, they’ll still be attending the festival, this time as fans.
“This will be a change of pace for me, which I think will be really cool to actually experience the festival the way a patron would,” said Graham, adding the couple will be back next year to help out.
Bolen says she is most excited to see Bahamas, one of the bands the couple discovered while working at RFF. Just like the festival kick-started the couple’s relationship, a part of it will be there when they say ‘I do.’
“There have been numerous groups that we’ve come to know and love throughout the Folk Festival environment that we’re now using as songs in our wedding.”