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Published Aug 09, 2023<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 Last updated 8\u00a0hours ago<\/span> \u00a0\u2022\u00a0 2 minute read<\/span> <\/p>\n
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Edmonton Folk Music Festival producer Terry Wickham poses for a photo at the top of Gallagher Park hill, a favourite hangout spot during the festival for thousands of folk music fans, in Edmonton, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. The 2021 festival has been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Photo by Ian Kucerak<\/span> Postmedia file<\/span> <\/p>\nArticle content<\/h2>\n
Terry Wickham is a busy man these days, as executive producer of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, which takes its first notes Thursday night featuring Feist as the main stage headliner.<\/p>\n
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Asking for Wickham\u2019s media availability could be a crap shoot \u2014 if not impossible.<\/p>\n
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Fourteen hours following an email request, Wickham responded. A cell number, too, and an open invitation to call.<\/p>\n
That action cements how Wickham, originally from Ireland and making a stop in Calgary before settling in Edmonton in the late \u201980s, sees the festival\u2019s work, and the need to promote it.<\/p>\n
Sure, there are countless details to be ironed out for the three-day Gallagher Park gathering.<\/p>\n
Volunteers working very hard. Check.<\/p>\n
Acts starting to arrive in Edmonton. Check.<\/p>\n
Good weather forecast. Check, we hope.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are in good shape,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But there are a few things that Wickham doesn\u2019t have any control over, despite his 35 years on the hill.<\/p>\n
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The weather is a constant concern. So, now, is smoke, and climate change, which can take a clutch on an outdoor event.<\/p>\n
Still \u2014 and the band plays on \u2014 the festival is in good financial shape, far from the 1980s when it was \u201cpretty broke,\u201d said Wickham.<\/p>\n
The festival\u2019s staff is larger in number and more experienced. Technology may be wonderful \u2014 when it works, right? \u2014 but there are still some things that are challenging.<\/p>\n
Yet, the music, and its creators, continues to thrive, giving the festival a comfortable, renowned place on the world\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n
We need music gatherings these days.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish the world and the rest of the year had the same utopian feel as the Folk Festival,\u201d said Wickham. \u201cIt is easy to play on people\u2019s fears and differences. It is easier to destroy than to build.<\/p>\n
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\u201cFolk music is a very positive influence but it cannot combat all the negativity around us. I like that at our festival, greed is not rewarded, where we don\u2019t have any VIP sales.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also said there is more grassroots, pure, songwriting and fewer lyrics penned with political views.<\/p>\n
One of Wickham\u2019s highlights was the 1994 opening night with a 12-song set from Joni Mitchell in front of 7,000 fans.<\/p>\n
Quite the backstory: Mitchell calling Wickham and telling him she wanted to play the folk festival, and suggesting a fee, a figure he said he would pay three of times more.<\/p>\n
It set the stage for Wickham to chase his bucket-list act, Van Morrison: a 17-song set in 2010 \u2014 a special Wednesday show to raise funds for an endowment project.<\/p>\n
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Yet another Wickham memory was John Prine in 2005.<\/p>\n
Wickham doesn\u2019t see retirement near on the horizon.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I don\u2019t know the answer, except, I think I will know when it is time, hopefully before anyone else does,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The festival follows the sun Sunday evening as it winds down with Ben Harper being the closing act.<\/p>\n
Wickham said he doesn\u2019t feel sadness any more when the annual festival weekend wraps up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to but that (letdown) feeling left town a long time ago. I look forward to a holiday. Now I am relieved if it all went well, as I feel a major responsibility to our society, to our patrons, to our artists and to our staff.\u201d<\/p>\n
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