The Edmonton Folk Music Festival is returning this summer and the full lineup was released Wednesday morning.
More than four dozen artists will play at this year’s folk fest, when it returns to Gallagher Park in August.
“This year we got very lucky, we’ve got a great lineup. All sorts of headliners,” festival producer Terry Wickham said. “It’s a very lucky year for us.”
Among the performers announced Wednesday is The National, which Wickham said the folk fest has been trying to land for about a decade.
See the full lineup below:
This year’s festival will be the first full folk fest since 2019, after the 2020 and 2021 editions were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, organizers of the folk fest offered street concerts in Edmonton neighbourhoods, in lieu of the full music festival.
“It’s been three years for this festival to come back together. COVID obviously impacted us greatly. Last year we did ‘Taking it to the Streets’ and the year before we did a big online documentary and lots of other stuff online,” Wickham said. “But there’s nothing like the folk festival and coming together as a community.”
Wickham said the festival model will largely remain unchanged from previous years, except they’re applying to have the entire site licensed. Things will kick off Thursday at 6:45 p.m. rather than the usual 6 p.m., Wickham said, to ensure they get everyone into the site.
Tickets for this year’s festival go on sale June 4 and can be purchased online only.
The Edmonton Folk Music Festival returns to Gallagher Park Aug. 4-7.