Mariposa Folk Festival takes to the stages

“Wahoo, we’re back.”

As crews at Tudhope Park assembled stages and vendors set up booths, Pam Carter cheered with relief that the Mariposa Folk Festival is opening after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

After its meager beginnings in 1961, and actually being banned from Orillia in 1963 – due to drunken debauchery – the festival has moved from city to towns but is back in its natural home this year for a week-end long event.

“We had to abandon our 60-year celebration – it was two years ago and we couldn’t hold it due to COVID-19. But we’re back now and it’s important to the industry, to the stage guys, the vendors, the performers, and the presenters,” Carter said.

“I think we’ll be sold out today.”

With good reason.

Blue Rodeo and the Strumbellas are added to a remarkable list of performers including Mavis Staples, Serena Ryder, Lennon Stella, JP Saxe, Allison Russell, Kathleen Edwards, Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, and many more.

Murray McLaughlin will be presented with his Canadian Songwriter Hall of Fame award by none other than folk legend Gordon Lightfoot.

And not to be left out, Lightfoot will finally be inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame on Sunday by presenters Carter and Tom Wilson of Blackie & the Rodeo Kings.

“Mariposa’s return to Orillia and our flourishing success ever since could simply not have happened without the support of Gordon Lightfoot,” said Carter. “When the Foundation was at its most vulnerable, he stepped in and made the difference.”

The festival features more than ten stages of top folk-roots music, along with presentations of stories, dance, and crafts.

All tickets are sold out. Kids 12 and under are admitted free.

The festival runs Fri., July 8 to Sun., July 10.

The Mariposa Festival has special pricing for youth and young adults.