Although I am sad to say goodbye to summer, by the time the September long weekend rolls around I have started to get a little bit tired of the migraines and mosquitoes and I'm ready for autumn to begin. To mark this transition to fall, it's become a bit of tradition for me to attend Symphony Under the Sky. This was one of the first festivals I attended in Edmonton and it's easily one of my favourites. I love coming to the park, well prepared with my blanket and mittens, ready for an evening listening to the Edmonton Symphony play while the sun sets behind them.



I prefer the grassy areas to the seats under the tent. It means you have to brave the elements a bit more, but I appreciate being able to stretch out my legs and cozy up to your significant other if they happen to come along. Of course there's also the added benefit of being able to beat the rush at the refreshment tents.

Conductor Bob Bernhardt adjusts his bow-tie before beginning Mozart's Concerto for Flute and Harp in C Major, K.299 (Elizabeth Faulkner on flute and Nora Bumanis on Harp)

Grassy seating is for lovers!

Amazing views of Hawrelak Park while the sun sets (except perhaps for the trailers parked behind)

This is Bob Bernhardt's sixth year conducting the ESO for Symphony Under the Sky. One of my favourite photos from SUTS in 2009 is featured in the program!

It was a fabulous first night and I'm looking forward to the rest of the weekend.

If you've never gone before or you haven't bought your tickets yet, the rest of the weekend is going to be beautiful. Gates open at 6pm and there are always tickets available at the gate. Hope to see you there!

Although I'm kind of jonesin' for a vacation right about now (no surprise, I always want to go on vacation), life in the city is just picking up. This is the best time of year. People stay out late during the week and there's always something some sort of outdoor event happening. We clearly are making up for the long winter.

Pride Parade and Al Fresco (the 104 Street Block Party) fell on the same Saturday again this year and just like last year it was gorgeous out. And because good things happen in triplicate, I had the pleasure of being on auntie duty. After a coordinated hand-off of Dexter at the market, I had a brief shopping trip, and then I found John, Glen, Wade and Phil who had found a choice spot to watch the parade.

Phil, waiting patiently for the parade to begin.

John, also waiting patiently for the parade.

After a bit of a wait the parade finally got started. They had moved the route to 102nd Avenue this year, which allowed for unobstructed views from both sides of the street. It seemed a bit more lively this year, with more floats, music and coordinated costumes.



Dexter certainly liked the parade. He danced and cheered and even took a turn wearing some parade swag. Sarah was busy teaching and Don was riding in the parade, but he stopped to say hello to his little boy. So, if you saw him stop to say hello to a cute little kid, it wasn't a case of politicians kissing random babies.



Dexter's pick for best in show was clearly this balloon. He played with it all afternoon.


Once the Pride Parade was done, we skipped the festivities in Churchill Square and headed back to the apartment to drop off my market wares. I was about to take Dexter back home on the LRT but he decided that he was cool and mature enough to sleep over at auntie's. No complaints from me. If only all kids went down for a nap that easy.

Fast forward a couple hours, and Sarah, Don, Dexter and I met up to walk downtown to check out the block party. Much of the parade crowd had lingered in the area. We first came across a crowd watching the salsa dancers in Beaver Hill Park.




And yes, hipster culture was well represented. Edmonton's most socially conscious and stylish were out in full force. I particularly liked this bevy of boys who had gathered at the mid-way point of all the block party action. These guys have got it all.


Don't get me wrong. I love them all (I jest all in good fun, mocking these fellows with malicious intent would be a case of calling the kettle black or thowing a stone from my glass house, since the gentleman reminds me frequently that I too am easily categorized as a hipster with my maxi dresses, long hair tied up in a loose bun and my SLR in my purse. But I was an early adopter baby!). These guys are basically a spread from one of my favourite tumblr blogs, convoy.

The gentleman had attended TEDx earlier in the day, along with a large crowd of intellectually keen individuals, but it wrapped up just in time for us to grab some supper together. We grabbed some sandwiches from the Elm Cafe booth and then chatted with our fellow "urban-types" over the fence at the wine tent.



That is, when they weren't ignoring us to look aloof or discuss important worldly matters.

The last five days have been dedicated to folk fest. Things are sort of back to normal but the younger sister and I are off to San Francisco on Wednesday so I'm sort of busy making sure that I complete a bunch of things before I leave. One if those things is this summary of my weekend at Folk Fest. This is sort of a lazy post, since I'm just posting the videos (and their brief descriptions) that I shot over the course of the last five days. But those videos took a bit of work to edit, so in the end it all balances out.

Wednesday

A friend of mine had a pair of tickets to Van Morrison's performance at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. What a windfall! It was the one night I didn't have tickets for. After work I met the gentleman at the university where we hopped on the bus at the park n' ride which took us directly to Gallagher Park. The line up to get in spanned three blocks, but the queue moved along quickly. Once inside we met up with some friends who had found a spot on the hill, then wandered down to get some eats. After our al fresco dinner we headed back up the hill, just in time for Van Morrison to take the stage.



Thursday

This is the first time that I have taken in the entirety of the Edmonton Folk Music Festival. Over the past few years I've been able to attend a couple days, but this year I bought a weekend pass (and one for my younger sister for her birthday) and we planned to attend the entire weekend.

Well, not exactly the entire weekend. We didn't do the full experience, which would entail arriving early for the tarp lottery (we had very experienced and generous friends who were the appointed tarp-masters...). Younger sister and I are also a bit susceptible to the heat and sun, so we paced ourselves and went a bit later in the afternoon/evening, since she faints at the drop of a hat and I just get heat stroke.

Thursday night was just the right temperature. We walked to the festival grounds with our friend Lisa and then found the rest of our crew higher up on the hill. We positioned ourselves for the evening show. None of the Thursday performer's really dazzled me. Gord Downie was off and Ben Harper failed to ignite any enthusiasm in me. But the lovely thing about Folk Fest is, that even when the performers on stage fail to really excite you, you can revel in the company of your tarp-mates or neighbours on the hill and take in the gorgeous view of the crowd and the glowing downtown skyline behind the stage.



Friday

Friday night at the folk fest... younger sister and I arrived late. Headache earlier in the day (me) and post-work meetings (her) meant that we weren't going to make the six o'clock start time. We reached Gallagher Park just in time to catch the very tail end of what looked like quite the popular session on Stage 6. The sun was setting and bathed the sitting crowd in perfect pink light.

The tarp crew had secured a pretty good spot at the mainstage, so I was close enough that I could get some fairly decent shots of the stage with my super-zoom. The Levon Helm band got the crowd off their feet to dance, which was a good start to the main performances of the night. There was a brief appearance by Basia Bulat during the procession of the volunteer lanterns. Following Basia was Calexico, the definite highlight of my night. At the end of Calexico's set (which was awesome), they invited Bassekou Kouyate on stage to play during their last song. Then the cold started to set in and younger sister and I headed back across the river while Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba ended the night of music on the hill. We crossed over the bridge (which was dark), admired the view of downtown reflected in the river and then met the gentleman in Riverdale and were escorted home. The previous night there was a great shot of the hill lit up with candles (which I neglected to photograph at the time), but this evening all that we could see was the glow of the mainstage lights.



Saturday

On Saturday the younger sister and I arrived later in the afternoon as we watched the Cariwest parade and visited the market briefly in the morning.

Our first session was "War and Peace" with Sarah Harmer, Basia Bulat, Jill Hennessy, and Terry Morrison on Stage 6, which always seems to feature the artists that I come to folk fest to see. Once that session was complete, we caught the very tail end of the concert with Debashish Bhattacharya, pioneer of the Indian slide guitar. Younger sister and I ran into my good friends Wade and Phil, who were almost always at different stages than I was. We parted company at that point, W&P off to the beer tent and younger sister and I to the food tent area, where we supped and then headed to the prime tarp location (thanks again to the tarp masters who stood in line).

And that's where we spent the rest of the night, ideally located for the evening's mainstage acts. The bare spots on the hill started to fill in during the four-part harmonies of bluegrass artists Dailey & Vincent and Malian singer and guitarist Vieux Farka Toure. The threat of rain was made good during Sarah Harmer's set, but our tarp was soon retrofitted with umbrellas to provide shelter from the elements. Despite the rain Sarah Harmer managed to get people on their feet and once on their feet they could no longer resist the call to dance. The rain frightened some people away, but their premature evacuation proved to be a poor choice as Brandi Carlile was a quick crowd favourite. She even got the crowd to sing three part harmonies (it did sound pretty good on the hill despite the off-key groaning coming from the people standing behind me). Younger sister and I made our own exit during Colin Hay. We crossed the river while the pedestrian bridge was still lit up and you could still see the glow of the candles on the hill when you got to the other side. I managed to get a picture this time.



Sunday

The younger sister and I arrived earlier on Sunday to catch a session with Alejandro Escoveda who we missed on Saturday. Alejandro was joined on stage by Basia Bulat and Dala as well as Brandi Carlile, so we got a bit of a reprise of the previous evening's mainstage performance.

We sought shade in the beer garden and enjoyed the midday mainstage performance by Te Vaka through the speakers. We were sitting close to Stage 1, so we were within earshot of the early afternoon performance by Naomi Shelton and the Gospel Queens. My parents were visiting so I wasn't going to be able to stay for the evening mainstage, but the younger sister and I had a little taste of the final mainstage at the 4:30 session on Stage 6 where Jakob Dylan performed with Colleen Brown, Brandi Carlile (she seemed to be everywhere) and Jimmy Rankin. It was a great session. The mood shifted from leisurely and relaxed to upbeat. During the final song of the set the siblings and I did not resist the call to dance.

It was a beautiful way to end the weekend. It was a hot and sunny festival, but younger sister and I managed to avoid heat stroke by pacing ourselves even more than we usually do. We tended to arrive late and leave a little bit early. We didn't see every act that we might have wanted, but it was still a thoroughly enjoyable weekend. We left hydrated (cherry lemonade by Stage 6!) and slightly sunburned. No heatstroke or fainting for either of us though. Success!



Oh, one more thing. On Sunday as I was leaving the beer tent I heard someone call my name and looked around to see a couple sitting on the grass. The gentleman in the group raised his glass to me and said, "Raffaella... local celebrity blogger [insert interrobang here]"

"...yes?" I responded, curious because I had no idea who this fellow was and if I do get recognized for something rarely is it my rather unpopular blog (although thinking about it, I might have seen this couple sitting near some mutual acquaintances earlier so maybe I do know who they are but didn't recognize them from behind the brim of my sun hat).

"Keep writing," the gentleman said and his lady friend smiled. I laughed and nodded sheepishly and then wandered on my way.

But as you can see, I did follow the advice/request of this mysterious stranger and as evidenced by this post I have kept writing.