The Roots, one of the biggest acts in hip hop seen nightly as the house band for The Tonight Show, is headlining the 45th annual Calgary Folk Music Festival this July.
The big name reveal came alongside the full list of artists performing at Folk Fest, in what has promised to be a fresh lineup of artists for the festival alongside new experiences for fans.
Still, Folk Fest artistic director Kerry Clarke said all of the things that Calgarians have come to love over the nearly half-century of festival experiences, will be back on Prince’s Island Park.
“It’s hard to be different every year because every year we are different. We only have one artist that we’ve repeated from the past this year. Every artist is new. The performances are all new. We’ve got some fresh things in the talk tents, and some different kinds of panels going on,” she said.
“But generally we have a model that really works… we don’t reinvent the wheel because there’s really no need.”
On The Roots though, Clarke said that they were among the biggest artists that the festival has been working to get to play for Calgarians.
“The Roots are huge for us, and I think it’s a really exciting get. That’s probably the biggest one this year—there’s some other artists that we’ve been working on for a while, but that one definitely was pretty much a bit of a crown in our caps,” she said.
Among the other artists playing at the festival this year include Cowboy Junkies, Ben Howard, Billie Marten, Booker T. and the M.G.’s, Leith Ross, MOONRIVR, TEKE::TEKE, and Wild Rivers.
Expanding the repertoire of local and international music included Korean Canadian viral sensation Luna Lee, the sound of the Americas, Making Movies, and Morrocan-French rock band Bab L’ Bluz.
“We have a super cool group from Egypt, Zar Electric, and then we have some up-and-coming Canadians who have haven’t played the festival. Leith Ross is really interesting,” said Clarke.
“So there’s a lot from chilled to exotic. We kind of have it all and lots for people to discover.”
Calgarians couldn’t wait to discover what Folk Fest had in store.
In fact, the demand for the 2024 lineup was so great that the Folk Fest website was taken down by extremely high traffic on the afternoon of April 30.
Tickets for the Calgary Folk Music Festival, which takes place on Prince’s Island Park from July 25–28, are on sale now.
The full lineup of artist for all of the Folk Fest stages is available at calgaryfolkfest.com.
