Featuring such amazing acts as Michael Franti and Spearhead, lyrical pop songstress Aimee Mann, multi-ethnic Ozomatli, the inspiring Master Musicians of Jajouka and Abigail Washburn and the Sparrow Quartet featuring Béla Fleck, check out the Festival Weekend performance schedule and start planning your Weekend in Jericho Beach Park!

Check out the three exciting shows planned for the Evening Concert Stage, the great entertainment and workshops throughout the Weekend on seven outdoor stages, and the special entertainment for the Little Folks and their families.

From The Canadian Encyclopedia:

Vancouver Folk Music Festival. It was founded in 1978 by Mitch Podolak and Colin Gorrie of the Winnipeg Folk Festival, Ernie Fladell and Fran Fitzgibbon of Vancouver’s social planning department through its Heritage Festival Society, and Gary Cristall, who co-ordinated the first festival, 11 to 13 Aug 1978, in Stanley Park. In its second year, the festival was relocated to Jericho Beach Park, and rescheduled to the third weekend of July. Sponsored by the city in 1978 and 1979, the festival came under the control of the newly-established, non-profit Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society late in 1979, with Cristall continuing as co-ordinator and artistic director. By the early 1980s, the festival presented 60 to 70 acts each year in a multi-stage format of daytime workshops and evening concerts. It has avoided the promotion of star performers but attendance has averaged about 30,000 annually, making this one of Canada’s most successful folk festivals.

The Dancing on the Edge Festival, which runs July 3-12, celebrates its 20th year with a mandate to offer a sampling of B.C.’s dance talent with some national companies, too.

This year, the festival commissioned the 10 For 20 Project, 10 new works created for the festival from seven choreographers who were in the first Edge festival in 1988.

There are also dance talks, dance classes, pre- and post-show chats and Offshoots of the Edge.

Event info at Dancing on The Edge

On stage this year:

- Helen Simard & JoDee Allen:Take It Back

- Jennifer Clarke: Highly Unlikely but Very Serious

- Kate McDonagh: fables and foibles of the foreigner

- Lola Dance: Princess

- Sara Coffin: Untitled

- Karen Rose: The (Remembrance) Trilogy

- Mascall Dance: Excerpt from What?

- 12 Minutes Max Sampler: Vancouver’s longest running multi-disciplinary showcase of emerging artists and emerging works from established artists.

- Namchi Bazaar: Industry of Dreams

- Joe Ink: Crash Landing Premiere

- The Tomorrow Collective: Untitled Premiere

- Amber Funk Barton/Shay Kuebler: Status Quo

- MovENT: Around the Block ( excerpt)

- EDAM: New work

- CoErasga: Adam-Eve/Man-Woman (Part 1)

- Las Productions FIGLIO: Slam for a Time Traveler Premiere

- Karen Jamieson Dance: Stand Your Ground — Act II

- Dusk Dances: Les moutons

- Kate Franklin: Automaton Theatre:

- Nova Bhattacharya/ Louis Laberge-Côté: Romeo & Juliet before parting

- Zata Omm Dance Projects: Tenterhooks

- Sara Coffin: Shirts and skirts

- Sylvie Bouchard: La gigue du souvenirs

- Aeriosa: Cumulus