Mariposa Folk Festival warm-ups June 20 & 23 at Orillia Art, History Museum
ORILLIA — With only three weeks to go to the Mariposa Folk Festival July 6-8, it’s a perfect time to warm up for the folk event of the summer.
Join ALEX the Folk Band for a Mariposa-style folk sing-a-long June 20; and June 23 at the Orillia Museum of Art and History for a free admission or donation.
ALEX the Folk Band is a seven-member, music-making cooperative that specializes in harmony vocals and fiddle-based instrumentals.
For 25 years and counting, the Orillia, Ontario-based group has performed in concert at festivals, conferences, conventions, fairs, private parties, farmers’ markets, schools, and legion- and church halls.
The band’s repertoire ranges from traditional tunes and songs to contemporary roots-based material. Our rousing gospel set has twice been featured at the Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia (2011 and 2012), and three times at the John Arcand Fiddle Fest in Saskatoon, most recently in August 2013.
Mariposa Moments …
Or How to Get Mariposa Back to Orillia
Stories from Folks Who Were There
It took a few folks to get the Mariposa Folk Festival back to Orillia, folks who were willing to become festival hustlers/badgers and Orillia boosters and negotiators with the Mariposa Folk Foundation leaders in Toronto, according to one of them. SO… why do it? There’s a story, of course.
Come and listen to festival history being told – if not fabricated – by some of the inspired and inspiring folks who worked to settle the festival safely at home: Tim Lauer, Gord Ball, Don Evans and Ted Duncan.
Storytelling Orillia regrets that Gerry Hawes, the charter president of Festivals Orillia Inc., the central figure who led the organization through the first two festivals after the return to Orillia, is unable to attend.
It was Gerry’s signature on the agreement with the Mariposa Folk Foundation that cemented the festival’s return, after a lot of heavy lifting on his part.
Join Tim, Gord, Don, Ted and other Mariposa fans for a Side By Each story circle at the Orillia Museum of Art and History on June 23, from 2 to 4 p.m., as festival supporters share some Mariposa Moments in the midst of the museum’s current exhibit, Free Spirits: The Mariposa Folk Festival in Orillia.
Co-hosted by the museum and Storytelling Orillia, this circle will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance hear from some of the folks behind the return of the folk festival as they tell their Mariposa stories.
On June 23, Tim Lauer will lead off the storytelling, and once he’s given the others a chance to chime in, anyone in attendance can take a turn to share their own Mariposa Moments.
What makes Mariposa your festival? What makes it Orillia’s festival? Your stories are part of it, and are welcome.
Tim Lauer loved Mariposa before it was Mariposa. In the summer of ’61 as a 10-year- old Tim got to hang out around the Bay St. home of Dr. Casey and Ruth Jones (McVeigh) and watch as Mariposa came into being.
Forty years later he again had a front row seat as the wayward Mariposa Folk festival ceased it’s provincial meandering and returned home.
Gord Ball describes himself as an old folkie who still gets nostalgic over the halcyon days of the 60s when folk music ruled, when the Mariposa Folk Festival as a gentle and laid-back event on Toronto Island and when Gordon Lightfoot was singing some of Gord Ball’s favourite songs. He says, “Following a series of wonderful Orillia Arts for Peace festivals during the 80s and 90s, in 1996 Tim Lauer, Don Evans and I began to work on returning Mariposa to Orillia, where it belongs.” He continues to recruit and organize the “Mariposa Ambassadors” who introduce acts on the festival’s side stages and put a Mariposa face on the festival.
Don Evans, a former city councillor, sometime cartoonist, editor and, with the band called Alex, an occasional singer and bodhran player, has been a performer, an organizer and long-time believer in Mariposa. When asked to explain himself, he says he is usually at a loss for words. He now lives in St. Catharines where, so far, he claims, he has managed to stay out of grievous trouble.
Ted Duncan was a member of Festival Orillia, the organization that brought Mariposa back to Orillia in 2000. He served as the festival’s organizing chair in 2001 and 2003, was president in 2002 and has served as an ambassador for the last 10 years. Ted describes Mariposa as a great organization that works for a year to get ready for three days every July.
Gerry Hawes, who led Mariposa back to town, won’t be at the story circle but will be at the festival. As well as doing much of the heavy lifting early on, Gerry has been president of the Mariposa Folk Foundation and has held a lot of other responsibilities since then. He will be working at the festival again this year, surfacing from his festival jobs on Saturday evening. Maybe he’ll have a story or two then!
The Flavours of Mariposa series features music, dance, and storytelling to animate Free Spirits: The History of Mariposa Folk Festival exhibition that not only delves into the history of Canada’s longest running folk music festival, it invites visitors to create and experience through art, music, and dance.
There’s also an opportunity to share your “Mariposa Moment.”
This exhibition and related programming is generously sponsored by Casino Rama Resort.
