Calgary fest and hotel flood

Calgary Folk Festival has been and gone and was good fun. Enjoyed an eclectic mix of music on the weekend, the highlights for me being ‘Great Big Sea’, Michael Franti and Spearhead and Steve Earl. Also shared a stage with, and got to know Thea Gilmore from the UK, what a great talent she is. I just had no grasp of the depth she already has when I was that young, and I think she will be around for a long time. It was another good festival to be part of and I’m realising that each one has its own characteristics and atmosphere and shouldn’t be compared as such with others.Calgary is a little more urban, being right in the heart of the city and you got the sense that the choir was not always being preached too, and that you were actually challenging some perceptions, which is great. Got back to the hotel on the Saturday night to find that the floor that our room was on was full of fireman and had been flooded by sprinklers going off. It was a bit of a mess to say the least and without going into detail became pretty stressful. The hotel was full so we couldn’t move rooms and being moved to another hotel at that time and what it would entail was a non-starter so we slept in a room covered in white towels! Anyhow, all was ok in the end and I managed to turn up for my 10.00pm workshop the next day; why do I get all the early starts? We now have ten days or so before the Edmonton Folk festival though I am making a guest appearance at the Canmore festival on Saturday. Started the time off in style this morning with a rafting trip down the Bow River..now were talking..don’t mind early starts to do that sort of thing!