Four years ago I experienced my first Folly Fest. It was a time of innocence and wonderment. It wasn’t my first music festival experience, but it was the first music festival that I felt had really reached out to lovingly ensnare me in its warm, glittery embrace, and in return I didn’t struggle all that much.
In the four years since I first stumbled into that parking lot as a wide-eyed sparkle pony, dependent on the mildly intoxicated kindness of strangers to literally and metaphorically commit me to their semi-nomadic way of festival life by dragging my tent out and pegging it to the ground, I have endured many festivals. My conversion from the visibly misplaced and uncomfortable writer to a proud supporter and card-carrying member of The Party was not immediate, but made fairly painless by an whole festival family of enablers.
That fact can’t be overstated for the uninitiated. Folly Fest, like a family reunion, will take you in like some long lost cousin. The festival might have more than its share of oddball uncles, dubious family secrets and at least one aunt who after a few drinks begins singing along with the band regardless of whether she knows the words before passing out at 7pm. But newcomers are all the more welcome for all that. The trick is to camouflage yourself in body glitter and make like the Romans.
While I might wax poetic on the performing artists (and rest assured, I will get to that shortly), the Folly Fest experience might be best summed up by the events of Sunday night. In the midst of a torrential downpour so severe that it shut down the mainstage, festival-goers gathered under the tarps of tent city for their own impromptu dance parties.
The drenched but otherwise ecstatic crowds were happy just to be there in the company of each other. When festival organizers came around as the rain lessened, moving from tarp to tarp, asking if everyone would return to the mainstage for the performance from headliners Plants & Animals, the parties didn’t suddenly evaporate in a mad rush. Instead, they dawdled, they lingered, in some cases they carried on, because at least half of everything that happens at Folly Fest is simply people coming together.
And since you were wondering, Plants & Animals did bring a crowd. Pushed out of the rain and halfway against the back of the stage while a small pond occupied the other half, the band still delivered one of the best performances of the weekend.
While Folly Fest was putting an emphasis on a retrospective for their tenth anniversary, the festival managed more surprises than just the weather (just kidding, nobody is ever surprised by rain at festivals).
Jamie Comeau & The Crooked Teeth made the jump from the smaller Yippie Stage to the Main Stage to blow everyone away with their early-evening set. The local boys made good, showing everyone they’ve got potential as headliners.
Neil Morash delivered a set from the Gagetown Courthouse that was simultaneously quirky, earnest and brilliant in his use of covers, kazoos, and throat singing. Explaining it would be almost as difficult as translating the performance into a recording. It’s just one of those things you need to experience live.
Joyful Noise‘s set was expected to be a crowd pleaser but the surprise addition of Gabriel Palatchi on keys made for one of those sublime moments when consummate musicianship is thrust together and had the crowd over-joyed (though none more so than the band themselves).
Carinae, up from Massachusetts, were a new-to-us discovery. They provided a welcome addition to the Yippie Stage with their brand of psych-rock.
The idea of a Led Zeppelin Tribute Band performing at Folly Fest caused some anxiety for my ears that bordered on full-out dread. The challenge of doing justice to such legendary music seemed like it could only lead to disappointment. With that expectation in mind, I was entirely prepared to spend an hour elsewhere, but that was quickly reversed. The performance from members of Fredericton’s Tortoise, Hare & The Millionaire and The Hypochondriacs downright squeezed my lemon.
The surprise (and very unofficial) pirate-themed scavenger hunt was also very… surprising, and while the hidden clues distributed about the festival grounds made for much intrigue, we only discovered treasure hoard by luck (not to mention the large group of pirates milling about.) Again, not all the best things about music festivals happen on stage.
While the music was fantastic all weekend long, the one thing we can’t put our finger on is the polarizing performance of Big Budi Band. Performing an improvised set, joined by Keith Hallett on bass, the band wove together an abstract fusion that finally congealed into a homogenous wall noise that left the crowd either astounded or offended. Further research is required.
All in all, and despite weather varying from scorchers to downpours, Folly Fest’s tenth year was another success, and four years in I now find myself helping other people to setup their tents. There’s an inexplicable urge to pitch-in, so to speak, and lend a hand to people coming into the festival. This year it was a big one, a massive 16-footer that could have fit a whole family and their van. But it seems there’s always room for a few more at Folly Fest.
As usual, supporters of The East’s Patreon get to see a TON of bonus photos. Seriously. If we had to print all these photos off they would weigh as much as FOUR ELEPHANTS! So just think about that. Here are just a few more to get you going.
