The Mission Folk Music Festival strives for a sense of familiarity.

The festival鈥檚 artistic and executive director, Michelle Demers Shaevitz, says she hopes the audience will be entertained by the event but also come away with a sense of community.

鈥淚t feels very much like a family coming back together every year 鈥� a little homecoming or reunion kind of vibe,鈥� Demers Shaevitz said. 鈥淎s much as I want people to discover new things and be entertained, I really want people to feel like they鈥檙e coming home as well.鈥�

At this year鈥檚 festival, she hopes attendees can also learn about other cultures, traditions and people.

While Demers Shaevitz says she can鈥檛 play favourites, she鈥檚 excited about some of the more unique acts in the lineup this year, including Okan from Cuba, Wesli from Haiti, and Cedric Watson and Jourdan Thibodeaux from Louisiana.

鈥淏etween these three groups, I think we鈥檒l see a really interesting migration of language and sound from the Caribbean up into Louisiana and I think it鈥檒l be a really interesting show,鈥� Demers Shaevitz said.

She is also excited about the Korean progressive rock group, Dongyang Gozupa, who perform on the Main Stage on Saturday.

鈥淭hey are a Korean band that plays folk-rock music, incorporating traditional Korean instruments and are very percussion focused,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey sing in their traditional language and I鈥檓 really excited to see how the audience receives that.鈥�

Demers Shaevitz says the festival has always focused on ensuring there鈥檚 an international element to the lineup.

鈥淲e want to make sure that we have a really diverse offering to our community,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e take a very expansive approach to what folk music is.鈥�

The Mission Folk Music Festival is still feeling the impact of COVID-19 despite the return of a full audience. The loss of suppliers, a decreasing number of food vendors and rising costs have emerged as issues from the pandemic.

鈥淚 think we鈥檙e still learning about the new landscape a little bit,鈥� Demers Shaevitz said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e tried to bring back a lot of the things that we would normally do, maybe just you know in a slightly different way or a more modern way. But I think that we鈥檙e still going to be feeling the repercussions for a while.鈥�

The festival runs from Friday (July 21) through Sunday (July 23) at Fraser River Heritage Park with tickets available at .

dillon.white@missioncityrecord.com
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