Laura Power
Northern News Services
Friday, July 20, 2007

YELLOWKNIFE - The sun shone down on Yellowknife last weekend as a record number of festival-goers made their way to the Folk on the Rocks site for a weekend of entertainment.

Aaron "Godson" Hernandez performs to a lively crowd Sunday evening at Folk on the Rocks. - Laura Power/NNSL photo

Festival director Tracey Breitbach said 4,017 people attended the festival last weekend, more than the previous record which was just under 4,000. In the beer garden alone, capacity was raised to 1,000 this year from 800 last year.

But though the numbers were higher, Breitbach said there were no problems with people getting out of hand. In all, she said the festival ran very smoothly.

"Whatever little problems we had were straightened out quickly," she said. "I was very pleased. We were all very happy and our volunteers were very happy and everyone had a very good time. The performers were really good."

Kyla Kakfwi Scott, who attended the festival with her four-year-old daughter Maslyn, agreed the festival went smoothly.

"I thought it was pretty fantastic," she said, adding that as she brought her daughter. She also thinks "it's nice that it is such an all ages thing."

Kakfwi Scott said the highlights for her were the collaborative performance in the beer garden between Godson, T.O.F.U. and Kytami as well as Sarah Harmer's performance.

"Sarah Harmer - I've been listening to her since first year university so that was cool," she said.

Aaron "Godson" Hernandez also had a great time at the festival and was happy to be a part of it.

"Out of all my Yellowknife shows, this has to be the funnest," he said. "I got to collaborate with some people in my genre which is very rare."

He was pleased with the lively crowd during his Saturday night performance, and was also thrilled with Harmer's performance that followed his.

"She just mesmerized me - she was really good," he said.

Breitbach said so far she has been getting a lot of good feedback from the public and that some say this has been the best year yet for the festival.

"I definitely thought it was a success," said Breitbach. "I'm definitely happy that the weather co-operated - that was a very nice bonus."

Feedback is a welcome thing for Breitbach, who said she is always looking for ways to improve the festival.