With a bigger and broader mandate than ever before now that it's been brought under the stewardship of Mark Monaghan, the driving force behind Ottawa's hugely successful Bluesfest, the Ottawa Folk Festival on Wednesday released it's 2012 lineup. Despite much fanfare, the line-up leaves a bit to be desired, though anyone who loves the Canadian home-grown folk scene will not be disappointed - which i guess is what its all about.
Headliners Bon Iver, Ben Harper and Great Big Sea join Wintersleep, Matthew Good, Matt Mays (sans El Torpedo), Dan Mangan, the Great Lake Swimmers and Kathleen Edwards, rounding out the list of performers you might have heard of. Not to take anything away from this eclectic array of talent, but there is hardly a lot of star power there. Nevertheless, it is a refreshing change to have a festival actually take its name seriously (Folkfest being dedicated, primarily, to folk, as opposed to a Ziggy Marley/Jazzfest or Thievery Corporation/Bluesfest team-up, etc. - but i want to see both those shows so keep it up!)
There are still a few time slots open, most notably on the closing sunday of the show, and with the new five-day format expanding by one day this year, hopefully Monaghan holds true to form and announces a few more aces he is still holding up his sleeve. Someone like Bruce Hornsby, who performed at the Folk Festival last year and will be in Canada this summer already, might be persuaded.
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