Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 21/00) - With some established music festivals experiencing trouble, such as the Mariposa Folk Festival in Ontario, it's a testament to the organizers of Folk on the Rocks and Yk residents that the music festival celebrates its 20th anniversary and its biggest year.

"The 20th anniversary is an exciting opportunity," says Yellowknifer Christopher Foreman, who is taking on the role of executive director for this banner year.

"They (the board) should be proud of sustaining the event all these years," he added.

Foreman, who is known for his substantial directing efforts on the local theatre scene, says his new job and duties are not much different from what he's been doing for so long.

"It's a step sideways," he says, adding that the kind of creative organization required in this position is no different than that demanded by theatre.

"Not the dry old administrative stuff only," he points out. "But as a producer/director of other performance arts, it fits hand in glove."

Shauna Yeomans, president of the Folk on the Rocks board of directors, also looks forward to a very exciting year; full of changes, improvements and refinements.

The festival will also be hiring an artistic director this year, who will work with Foreman.

Yeomans says it was time to concede that the responsibility of running the festival was too much for only one salaried person.

"There's so much that happens behind the scenes that the general public doesn't see. It's all the little things."

Yeomans hopes the extra person will help ensure the performers are happy, Pido Productions -- the company responsible for sound and sound equipment -- is happy and that the board will be relatively safe from undue stress.

"We've increased the budget for selection (this year)," adds Yeomans. "It won't necessarily mean more acts, but bigger names."

The cost of bands is always a consideration.

"With a band like Blue Rodeo, we can't afford their full price, so we have a lot of interaction with other festivals. So, if they get into the Winnipeg Folk Festival and the Vancouver Festival, we might get a better rate because they know we're small."

Yeomans thinks of this as brokering, and it also may help diminish transportation costs. The festival is currently working out details with Canadian North for sponsorship.

Other changes will include modifications to the existing site. Plans are also being made for a new sound stage as well as a permanent home for the beer gardens.

"The fences will be moved, because of the highway realignment and the golf course expansion," says Yeomans, adding that the space used for parking last summer will now become part of the site.

"And we're hoping to have a lot more things to do on the site, not necessarily all music related."

"More multi-disciplinary," pipes in the new director.

"We'd like to get the craft bigger this year," adds Yeomans.

If the creative exuberance that's evident when these two discuss plans is any indication of the energy that will drive the festival's anniversary weekend, then, folks, we are in for a treat.

"They should be three very full days. While centred around music, we hope to offer much more ... a celebration for the whole family," says Foreman.

And on that note, Yeoman says that as well as a children's performer, the festival would like to target a youth performer.

The festival receives over 200 applications a year from performers wanting to play at our modest little event.

"Plus, there's always those from other years that for whatever reason are remembered."

The selection committee will often say yes to an individual or group, but in that particular year it may have been impossible. Those are retained for future consideration.

"It's always a real juggling act."

And a story about Folk on the Rocks would not be complete without mentioning the over 200 volunteers who help out with everything from billeting artists to after-festival cleanup.

The duo finishes up by mentioning changes to the first night of the festival, which has usually been a dance at the Explorer Hotel.

"We're looking at changing the Friday evening structure," says Yeomans.

"There are exciting plans afoot!" adds Foreman.

But first things first. The annual fund-raising concert at the Northern Arts and Cultural Centre will be held March 4 and 5, when The Plaid Tongued Devils of Calgary will be in town with their "Klezmer, Gypsy, Middle Eastern and Modern Pop" sound.

Folk on the Rocks runs from July 14-16.