The Festival of Friends is an annual three-day free summer music festival held in Gage Park in
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Hamilton has a population of 569,353, and its census metropolitan area, which includes Burlington and Grimsby, has a population of 785,184. The city is approximately southwest of T ...
, on the first weekend in August.
History
1976
Festival of Friends was started in 1976 by artist Bill Powell Jr. as an independent folk festival in Hamilton's Gage Park. Performers at the inaugural festival included
Willie P. Bennett
William Patrick "Willie P." Bennett (26 October 1951 – 15 February 2008) was a Canadian folk music, folk-music singer-songwriter, harmonica player, and mandolinist. Bennett was part of the 1970s folk music scene in Canada, and wrote and recorded ...
Brent Titcomb
Brent Arthur Titcomb (born August 10, 1940 in Vancouver, British Columbia) is a Canadian actor and musician. He plays guitar, percussion, harmonica, and jaw harp.
Music career
Titcomb was the original member of the folk-rock group 3's A Crowd ...
,
Shirley Eikhard
Shirley Rose Eikhard (7 November 1955 – 15 December 2022) was a Canadian singer-songwriter. Although moderately successful in Canada as a performer in her own right, she had her greatest Canadian and international success as a songwriter for ...
,
Marc Jordan Marc or MARC may refer to:
People
* Marc (given name), people with the first name
* Marc (surname), people with the family name
Acronyms
* MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging,
* MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system of ...
,
Noel Harrison
Noel John Christopher Harrison (29 January 1934 – 19 October 2013) was an English actor and singer who had a hit singing "The Windmills of Your Mind" in 1968, and was a member of the British Olympic skiing team in the 1950s. He was the son of ...
,
Sylvia Tyson
Sylvia may refer to:
People
*Sylvia (given name)
* Sylvia (singer), American country music and country pop singer and songwriter
*Sylvia Robinson, American singer, record producer, and record label executive
* Sylvia Vrethammar, Swedish singer cre ...
,
Stan Rogers
Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter.
Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and th ...
,
The Good Brothers
The Good Brothers are a Canadian country, bluegrass and folk music group originating from Richmond Hill, Ontario. The band's core members are Brian Good (guitar), his twin brother Bruce Good (autoharp) and younger brother Larry Good (banjo).
B ...
,
Jesse Winchester
James Ridout "Jesse" Winchester Jr. (May 17, 1944 – April 11, 2014) was an American-Canadian musician and songwriter. He was born and raised in the southern United States. Opposed to the Vietnam War, he moved to Canada in 1967 to avoid b ...
,
Ian Tamblyn
Ian Tamblyn (born December 2, 1947) is a Canadian folk music singer-songwriter and record producer, adventurer and playwright.
Early life
Tamblyn was born and raised in Fort William (now Thunder Bay), Ontario, and studied at Trent University, g ...
,
Beverly Glenn-Copeland
Beverly Glenn-Copeland (born 1944) is an American singer and songwriter. He has spent most of his life and career in Canada. His albums include '' Keyboard Fantasies'' (1986). Glenn-Copeland began publicly identifying as a trans man in 2002.
Ea ...
,
Raffi
Raffi Cavoukian, ( hy, Րաֆֆի, born July 8, 1948), known professionally by the mononym Raffi, is a Canadian singer-lyricist and author of Armenian descent born in Egypt, best known for his children's music. He developed his career as a " ...
,
Ben Mink
Benjamin Mink (born January 22, 1951) is a Canadian songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer best known as a longtime collaborator of Canadian singer k.d. lang. He plays several string instruments, notably the guitar, violin, and the m ...
,
Jackie Washington
Jackie Washington (November 12, 1919 – June 27, 2009) was a Canadian blues musician.
Biography
He was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario, the grandson of an African American fleeing slavery, and one of fifteen children born to his parents, ...
and
Colleen Peterson
Colleen Susan Peterson (November 14, 1950 – October 9, 1996) was a Canadian country and folk singer, who performed both as a solo artist and as a member of the band Quartette.
Career
Peterson began performing in coffeehouses in Ottawa in 1966 ...
. In its first year, the Festival also partnered with the neighbouring Delta Theatre, which hosted free screenings of Canadian films, as well as marathon concerts that ran from midnight until daybreak. The three-day festival was captured in a documentary film.
1977–2010
Over the next 35 years, the festival continued annually in Gage Park, and evolved into a showcase for arts and music featuring musicians, crafters, and food from across the globe. Over the years Canadian singer-songwriters such as
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, po ...
,
Ken Whiteley
Kenneth Whiteley (born April 30, 1951) is a multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. He began performing folk music in the early 1970s, making frequent appearances at the Mariposa Folk Festival and recording and touring with acclaimed childre ...
,
Burton Cummings
Burton Lorne Cummings (born December 31, 1947) is a Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter. He is best known for leading The Guess Who during that band's most successful period from 1965 to 1975, and for a lengthy solo career.
Cummings has ...
Valdy
Paul Valdemar Horsdal, (born 1 September 1945), commonly known as Valdy, is a Canadian folk and country musician whose solo career began in the early 1970s. He is known for "Rock and Roll Song", his first mainstream single. Valdy is the winner o ...
,
Bob Snider
Bob Snider is a Canadian singer/songwriter.
Snider grew up in Toronto and later moved to Bear River, Nova Scotia, Canada. Upon returning to Toronto in the 1980s, he befriended Bob Wiseman and other songwriters in the Toronto open stages at Fat ...
Randy Bachman
Randolph Charles Bachman (; born September 27, 1943) is a Canadian guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a founding member of the bands The Guess Who and Bachman–Turner Overdrive. Bachman recorded as a solo artist and was part of a num ...
,
Fred Eaglesmith
Frederick John Elgersma (born July 9, 1957), known by the stage name Fred Eaglesmith, is a Canadian alternative country singer-songwriter. He is known for writing songs about vehicles, rural life, down-and-out characters, lost love and quirky rur ...
,
Jane Siberry
Jane Siberry ( ; ; born 12 October 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as " Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", "One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels". She performed the theme song to the television series ''Maniac Ma ...
,
Ron Sexsmith
Ronald Eldon Sexsmith (born January 8, 1964) is a Canadian singer-songwriter from St. Catharines, Ontario. He was the songwriter of the year at the 2005 Juno Awards. He began releasing recordings of his own material in 1985 at age 21, and has ...
and
Gord Downie
Gordon Edgar Downie (February 6, 1964 – October 17, 2017) was a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, musician, writer and activist. He was the singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, which he fronted from its forma ...
appeared in the bandshell.
In 2007, the festival's sole focus on Canadian musicians was eased and international musical acts were added to the line-ups, such as
Don McLean
Donald McLean III (born October 2, 1945) is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for his 1971 hit song " American Pie", an eight-and-a-half-minute folk rock "cultural touchstone" about the loss of innocence of the early ...
,
Canned Heat
Canned Heat is an American band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1965. The group is noted for its efforts to promote interest in blues music and its original artists and rock music. It was founded by two blues enthusiasts Alan Wilson and Bob ...
,
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone (born Dickran Gobalian; August 26, 1949 – May 30, 2019) was a singer-songwriter and musician specializing in jazz, blues, and Tin Pan Alley classics. Recognized by his hat (often a Panama hat), dark sunglasses, and black tie, Red ...
,
Eric Burdon
Eric Victor Burdon (born 11 May 1941) is an English singer. He was previously the lead vocalist of R&B and rock band the Animals and funk band War. He is regarded as one of the British Invasion's most distinctive singers with his deep, powe ...
,
Dr. John
Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music encompassed New Orleans blues, jazz, funk, and R&B.
Active as a session musician from ...
,
Steve Earle
Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...
,
Richie Havens
Richard Pierce Havens (January 21, 1941 – April 22, 2013) was an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. His music encompassed elements of folk, soul (both of which he frequently covered), and rhythm and blues. He had a rhythmic guitar style ...
and
Buckwheat Zydeco
Stanley Dural Jr. (November 14, 1947 – September 24, 2016), better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco, was an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music gro ...
.
After 25 years as director, Powell retired in 2000. Doug MacArthur and Powell's wife Lynne directed the event until Loren Lieberman became its director in 2002, serving until his retirement in late 2016.
2011–2016
In January 2011, the Festival of Friends announced that it would be moving from its historic home in Gage Park to the Ancaster Fairgrounds. At the time, Lieberman and city councillor Bernie Morelli stated that the festival had simply outgrown the park. The exodus from Gage Park was sharply criticized by founder Powell, as well as a chorus of the festival's regular local musicians. The first year at the new location was marred by parking headaches and traffic gridlock, and the 2012 festival was hit with three days of heavy rain, but Lieberman insisted there were no plans to move the festival back to Gage Park as this would force a substantial reduction in size. "The location was no longer working, but the music still is," he remarked in 2015.
2017–Present
In October 2016, organizers announced that the festival would move back to Gage Park starting in 2017. In a statement, organizers explained that "the Festival of Friends was forced to move to Ancaster for a myriad of reasons – including unresponsive leadership at city hall, as well as issues of access in Gage Park. In the past few months, changes at city hall have made it possible for the Festival of Friends to negotiate solutions to many of the concerns that necessitated our exit."
Many festival-goers welcomed the return and felt the Ancaster location was too out-of-the way. For his part, Lieberman admitted that Ancaster was "never where the festival was supposed to be." Lieberman quit as festival director in 2016, with longtime board member Robert Rakoczy taking over the reigns as General Manager in 2017. Due to the coronavirus the festival was cancelled in 2020.
The event
The Festival of Friends weekend includes 25–30 musical acts on two stages. A main stage runs until 11:00pm daily. A second stage runs 12:00pm – 6:00pm Saturday & Sunday.
The event also features craft and food vendors, a beer garden, midway rides, a haunted house, an escape room and pony rides.
File:Guinness Book of Records "Make it 1803" Guitar Record Breaking Attempt.jpg, Guinness World Records Attempt at Festival of Friends
File:Finger 11 Performs on The Festival of Friends Stage 2009.jpg, The Festival of Friends Mainstage at Night
File:High Valley performs at the 2018 Festival of Friends..jpg, Country group High Valley performs at the 2018 Festival of Friends.