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Photo Credit: Bear Creek Folk Festival Facebook page
By Shane Clausing
Bear creek folk fest

Bear Creek Folk Festival plans to launch “Un-Festival” in response to festival cancellation

Jul 7, 2020 | 5:30 AM

With COVID-19 forcing the cancellation of the annual Bear Creek Folk Festival scheduled to take place at Muskoseepi Park from August 14-16, the festival has decided to launch it’s the first ever “Un-Festival”.

The “Un-Festival” will take place via live stream during the weekend of the initially scheduled Bear Creek Folk Fest. The event is still in the planning stages, and more details are waiting to be confirmed, but as organizer of the festival Sarah Card explains, they didn’t just want to see this weekend to be a total washout.

“We couldn’t let that weekend just go by without kind of raising a glass and at least toasting it and recognizing it. We will be doing some sort of a special event on our festival weekend itself.”

One thing that Card alluded to that they will be doing is bringing back some old video footage of their first festival in 2016. She says the point of the event is to celebrate the community.

“Our aim is to put together something really special that will help re-live some cool fest memories, and hopefully bring something new as well and give people something that will feel good to watch and bring some sunshine to the weekend.”

With the festival moving online, Card says that merchandise that would’ve been available at the festival is available for purchase on the folk fest’s website.

She adds that the merch is popular amongst folk fest goers in Grande Prairie.

“The artwork is so beautiful, so a lot of people collect the shirts year to year. We are already seeing a really positive response for the shirts. People seem to really like them, which is really great, it’s a beautiful design.”

Proceeds raised from the t-shirts help the folk fest continue to operate.

More details will be announced in the future on the Bear Creek Folk Festivals Facebook page.

by Shane Clausing