Here's a little sunshine in November - Lawrie DePape, a guy who takes pictures for the Manitoban was in the audience at the Mariposa Folk Festival on Olympia Island in Ontario, in July.

Mariposa is Canada's big (only?) annual folk festival. This year was it's tenth. All the performers are paid a nominal fee, everyone getting the same amount; the lineup of artists running the gamut of folk styles. From the chicago [sic] blues of J. B. Hutto to the Sioux Indian rain dance, from the Russian folk ballads of Alexandre Zelkin to the Cajun music of Doug Kershaw, folk fans were treated to some of the best the folk world has to offer. Most years Mariposa offers no or few "big names" but this year was an exception: James Taylor, David Red, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, Doug Kershaw, Mississippi Fred McDowell and Joni Mitchell (for her tenth (sic) year) all played evening concerts as well as playing in workshops during the day. Other workshop performers included many talented by lesser known artists: Sara Gray, Owen McBride, Michael Cooney, Bruce Cockburn, Edith Butler, J. B. Hutto and the Hawks, The Perth County Conspiracy, and the Pennywhistlers. There were 20,000 people there. Can you dig it?