Preparations underway for the annual Mariposa Folk Festival
Preparations began Monday for the annual Mariposa Folk Festival.
"Tents are going up, tables and chairs just arrived, the main stage just arrived, sound equipment, food… it's just a beehive of activity right now," said Pam Carter, Mariposa Folk Festival president.
This year marks the 64th year, and officials said many artists will be performing.
"This year, we have an amazing line-up - Band of Horses, Noah Cyrus, Old Crow Medicine Show, Bruce Cockburn. I would say the workshops are something to really look forward to this year. Almost every artist that's playing at the festival agreed to do a workshop. So, you're going to see lots of different artists come together on our stages who have never played together before," said Spencer Shewen, Mariposa Folk Festival artist director.
Tickets have been sold out for the past two years, and officials said this year, with only 200 tickets remaining, the trend is expected to continue.
The 55th annual Mariposa Music Festival held in Orillia on July 3, 2015. (Rob Cooper / CTV Barrie)
"The weather looks great, the tickets are briskly selling, and I'd suggest to people to get their tickets now because by Friday at four o'clock, not likely to have any," said Carter.
Officials said this event wouldn't be possible without the 800 volunteers.
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"Volunteers come back year after year. We've got some volunteers with 35 years of service. It's like community; some people haven't seen each other for a year, and they're back together, and everybody's just doing what needs to be done," said Carter.
One of those volunteers is Ken Rovinelli, who has volunteered with the Mariposa Folk Festival for 35 years.
"I fell in love with the idea of a festival, and the way that it's such a different experience than what if's been doing in regular life like sitting at a desk all the time and now all of a sudden you're organizing a festival with international acts and what keeps you coming back is the music changes, the people change, the venue has changed a few times," said Rovinelli.
Roughly 1,000 campers will arrive at the park on Thursday. The festival will kick off Friday at 4 p.m. and wrap up Sunday at midnight
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