Canada's longest-lived and most arguably important folk music festival, the Mariposa Folk Festival, has announced its 2024 lineup. The event runs July 5 to 7 at Tudhope Park in Orillia, the Ontario town that first hosted the fest back in 1961.
It's a compelling and stylistically diverse lineup, headed by Old Crow Medicine Show, Bruce Cockburn, Bahamas, Band of Horses, Noah Cyrus, William Prince and Maestro Fresh Wes. That grouping includes both Canadian and American acts, and showcases a diversity of genres, with hip-hop, world music, classic rock, and pop-rock artists billed alongside more conventional folk/roots singer/songwriters. It also includes names like Amigo The Devil, Donovan Woods, Dwayne Gretzky and Jesse Cook.
The rest of the lineup poster accentuates that diversity. Top Canadian blues artists Colin Linden, Crystal Shawanda and Blue Moon Marquee are featured, as are noted Indigenous singer-songwriters Amanda Rheaume and Shawnee Kish, hip-hop star Shad, roots-rockers Leeroy Stagger, Jeremie Albino and American bands Okkervil River and Sarah Shook & The Disarmers, indie rock hero Bry Webb (The Constantines), punk troubadour B.A. Johnston and kids music faves Splash ‘N Boots.
More conventional folk acts featured include Old Man Luedecke, Irish Mythen, Ken Whiteley, Cat Clyde, Gordie MacKeeman and His Rhythm Boys and Good Lovelies.
Find the whole lineup poster below.
In announcing the festival, Mariposa Folk Foundation President, Pam Carter, warned that “the festival consistently sells out well ahead of time."
The 2024 edition of Mariposa marks the debut of Artistic Director, Spencer Shewen. He explained at the launch that “our attendees are going to be able to see fan-favourites who they know and love as well as many great new and emerging acts that are starting to make waves on the world stage.”
The fact that Mariposa now regularly sells out points to its current health, but its long ride has featured many bumps in the road. Financial setbacks threatened its survival many times, and an early trouble-filled edition saw it banned from its Orillia birthplace. It was hosted at a number of different locales in Toronto after that, prior to returning to its Orillia home in 2000, for a fest headlined by hometown hero and huge Mariposa-booster Gordon Lightfoot.
The turbulent history of the festival was documented by former Artistic Director Mike Hill in his book, The Mariposa Folk Festival: A History. Especially fascinating is the fact that it was founded by a mother of four folk enthusiast Ruth Jones, with the support of her husband, Dr. Casey Jones, then head of an Orillia-based psychiatric facility, and local alderman Pete McGarvey. Interesting factoid: The very first Mariposa poster and logo were designed by a then largely unknown singer-songwriter called Ian Tyson, now renowned as a Canadian icon.
In the decades following, hundreds of Canadian and American folk and roots artists have received career boosts by gracing the Mariposa stages. Such legends as Joni Mitchell, Ian and Sylvia, Pete Seeger, Leonard Cohen, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Odetta, Phil Ochs, Rev. Gary Davis, John Hammond, Tom Paxton, Murray McLauchlan, John Prine and Stan Rogers have all played the festival, as have such contemporary artists as Jann Arden, Lucinda Williams and Serena Ryder.
For full lineup details and ticket information, go here.
