Between 8,000 and 10,000 people were estimated to have attended each day of the Mariposa Folk Festival, which was quietly celebrating a quarter century since returning to the Sunshine City.
Orillia City Coun. Tim Lauer was one of the community members who was instrumental in bringing Mariposa home at the turn of the century. All along, Lauer envisioned it becoming a marquee event for many across central Ontario.
“When I first ran into Mariposa, I was hoping it would rival all the big festivals right across Canada,” he said. “We were hoping it was going to get this large, but to get this large, we had to get lucky and get a lot of good people involved over the 25 years, which we have.”
Those good people include 750 volunteers who were found throughout the park during the weekend and the weeks leading up to the folk festival. They’ll be there too over the next few days, tearing down the stages and erasing any trace that a music festival took place at all.
Chris Hazel, manager of the Mariposa Folk Foundation, knows he may be the one on the payroll, but without the volunteers, the festival would not happen.
“What you see here is all these teams,” he said. “You see the 750 here, but don’t necessarily appreciate that there are maybe 40-50 people who work all year round, crazy hours, dedicated to the festival.
"Whether it’s the board or festival organizing group or our communities, (they’re) pulling the whole thing together out of the goodness of their heart, because they love Mariposa," said Hazel.
“When we brought it back 25 years ago, and started talking about the number of volunteers you needed it seemed daunting,” Lauer said. “Now, I don’t think they have any problem getting 800. People want to do it, they want to be part of the festival, they want to participate. It’s an amazing thing.”
They don’t have any problem securing volunteers at all, Hazel confirmed. Each January, registration to volunteer opens. This year, 450 people had signed up in the first week. In total, he said, each year 80 to 90 per cent of the volunteer force returns.
John Winchester has been volunteering since 2016 on the driving team, responsible for getting musicians to and from Tudhope Park.
“I wanted to get to know some of the performers and what better job than the performer shuttle,” he said. “Whether it’s somebody that’s really famous or somebody I had never heard of before, it’s just been so cool to get to know them.”
He pointed to driving Buffy Sainte-Marie and her band when they performed in 2018 as a highlight of his volunteering, which given his previous career as a high school teacher, comes second nature.
“When I coached in high school, as I did for 30 years, that’s all volunteer too,” Winchester said. “Volunteering is nothing new to teachers, so that’s why a lot of the people who volunteer here, in any capacity, are teachers because we enjoy meeting people.”
Volunteers at the festival are responsible for 12 hours of work over the course of the weekend – ideally four hours each day. In exchange, they’ve given access to enjoy all Mariposa has to offer on their down time.
It’s a benefit Winchester, who has been a longtime patron of the festival with his family, and Jim Wenger both pointed to as a reason for choosing to volunteer.
“I always come to Mariposa, and I always have my camera with me anyway, so I figured I might as well put some talent to good use,” Wenger said. “And I get in for free.”
Wenger has been attending Mariposa for the past eight year and has spent four years volunteering with the Doc crew.
“We just wander around: candid shots, band shots, artisans, food vendors, we take it all,” Wenger explained. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s the best weekend of the summer. The artists are fantastic. They always have such good bands playing. It’s such a good time.”
The volunteers eliminate a tremendous burden for Hazel and other organizers.
“(Each) team is like a family that gets a job done at the festival,” Hazel said. “The best thing is that Pam (Carter), our president, and myself, we don’t have to know what’s going on with the fencing team, on the bars team, on the security team, because that family is taking care of that part of the festival without hardly any supervision.”
That luxury allows for Hazel, foundation board members and other organizers to focus on ensuring the festival can continue to grow and evolve the way those that brought it back to Orillia in the first place envisioned.
That evolution has been pointed over the past eight years.
“Our board looked at the festival back in 2016, when we had kind of been on a plateau for about 10 years and we looked at some of the stats on our patrons and the interesting figure was that the average age was getting older by one year, every year,” Hazel said. “We said to ourselves, ‘that is not a long-term plan.’”
The focus has shifted to make sure Mariposa is a multi-generational festival. The volunteer teams may be like a family, but its future remains rooted in actual families attending together and continuing traditions.
The Folk Play area was re-imagined and made more interactive for younger children, while the way the festival is promoted has also been reinvigorated.
Then, there’s been the balance between a traditional folk festival lineup — such as Bruce Cockburn’s incredible performance on the Lightfoot Stage Sunday night before being inducted into the Mariposa Hall of Fame — and a new generation of singer-songwriters and musicians, such as one of the larger draws of the weekend, Noah Cyrus.
And with a third consecutive sell out, it appears to be working.
“This year there are actually 20 per cent more teenagers, with our youth pass, than ever before,” Hazel said. “So not just a record, but a record by 20 per cent. That changes the whole nature of the festival because it becomes an all ages, multi-generational place to be for kids, young adults, middle aged guys like me and retired folks.”
Mariposa concluded Sunday with performances from Old Crow Medicine Show, Maestro Fresh Wes and Dwayne Gretzky. The festival will return in 2025.
Check back tomorrow for a story about Cockburn's induction and more photos from the third day of the popular event.
