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Draft of Mariposa Folk Festival edits

As well as folk music, the festival highlights other aspects of folk culture including dance, crafts, storytelling.

Notable Performers

Jackson Browne

Bruce Cockburn

Leonard Cohen

Bob Dylan

Edith Fowke

Gordon Lightfoot

Joni Mitchell

Alanis Obomsawin

Buffy Saint-Marie

Neil Young

Early Years

The idea for the Mariposa Folk Festival was created by Ruth McVeigh and her husband Dr. Casey Jones, after hearing a presentation by John Fisher. The name for the festival was borrowed from Stephen Leacock's Book Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town, which was inspired by the town of Orillia.

Mariposa Folk Festival was held for the first time in 1961.

In 1964 the festival moved unexpectedly to Toronto. Backlash from Orillia and Medonte township community members prevented the festival from continuing in its original location. Due to these circumstances as well as inclement weather, many people who had bought tickets to the festival did not attend.

In 1966 the festival's format changed, under the direction of Estelle Klein. It became more workshop-based and featured multiple stages so that different performances could occur simultaneously.

1968 was the first year that the festival started on a Friday night. It was advertised with a focus on workshops rather than on headlining acts.

In 1969 CBC filmed throughout the weekend of the festival, and created a documentary entitled “Mariposa: A Folk Festival”, which aired on September 28, 1969.

The 1970s

In 1970 the "Native People area" at the festival was expanded, and was a success with festival visitors. This year also featured workshops investigating instrumental styles, music of specific regions and song exchanges.

In 1971 there were no evening concerts or main stage performances. The festival was fully focused on workshops and small stage performances in order to promote smaller acts as well as already well known performers.

The 1972 festival experienced heavy rainfall, but that did not affect festival attendance. Some well known musicians came to watch the festival including Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Gordon Lightfoot, Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne and some of them were interested in performing. The festival organizers were unsure if they should include these performers because the festival was no longer focused on big name acts. Ultimately, Murry McLauchlan offered Joni Mitchell part of his performance time. Bruce Cockburn did the same for Neil Young.

The 1973 festival featured musicians from around the world including Bai Konte from West Africa, Martin Carthy from England, Ardoin Family from Louisiana in the United States and the Boys of the Lough from Ulster and North England.

1975 was International Women's year, so the festival added many more female performers.

In 1976 the festival received a government grant so that they could include a special group of Indigenous performers from the prairies.

In 1977 the festival focused on the origins of North American folk music. The large variety of music was represented under four themes: black, Spanish, francophone and English.

The 1979 festival featured a special pavilion of Labrador craftspeople, musicians and storytellers. It also increased its folk music activities for children.

Mariposa in the Schools

Starting in the mid-seventies the Mariposa Folk Festival featured children's concerts and musical workshops. In addition to this, the year round program "Mariposa in the Schools" was created in order to bring folk musicians to local Ontario schools for musical programming. The Mariposa in the Schools program ended in 2018. However, the Festival continues to have children's programming on the festival weekend in their Folkplay area.