Tanya Tagaq and Corb Lund brought an end to the 35th anniversary of Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks on Sunday night.
The 2015 festival enjoyed a warm weekend barely touched by threatened rain. Dan Mangan, Leela Gilday, Mariachi Ghost and The Wet Secrets were among other acts to grace FOTR’s six stages.
“It’s always strange to be back,” said Yellowknife-born spoken word poet Shane Koyczan, who put in performances on three separate stages over the two days of the festival.
“When you stay away for so long then you come back and see all the changes they’ve made without you, you feel like you’ve been away too long. It’s magical to be back.
“I’ve always loved this festival. This is the one I came to when I was a kid, this was the first festival I’d ever been to. This will always have a special place in my heart – it will always be top-five.”
Yellowknifer Abe Thiel lays claim to an interesting attendance record at Folk on the Rocks.
Thiel attended the first-ever festival in 1980, then skipped a few – 33, to be precise. This year marked his first trip back to Folk on the Rocks since its debut year.
“I haven’t come in 34 years because it seemed like every time this weekend was on, I had something else to do. This weekend I had no excuse, so I came,” Thiel told Moose FM.
“I’m having fun. It’s not something I’d do every year, but I’ll probably do it more often than every 34 years. This is a hoot.
“The first one wasn’t as organized as this. It was just people in the sand along the hill where the main stage is, listening to whoever wanted to play. What’s nice about this is seeing people you typically don’t see.”
Scroll down for a selection of Moose FM’s photos, followed by our pick of your best images from Folk on the Rocks 2015.
