By Will McGuirk

It may have been the scorcher of a weekend, could be the heat mellowed everyone out but in a world fraught with tension what a joy to spend some days among friends and the friendly.

Circumstances, annoying in a manner, meant my plans at Mariposa 2024 July 5,6,7 in Tudhope Park, Orillia, had to be reworked and I found myself hanging out at my spot with all kinds of folks with all kinds of stories - what a wonderful way to pass the weekend.

Of course it's the music which brings us together and the line-up by new artistic director Spencer Shewen was of such a calibre; ex-Cons Bry Webb, the prime time minister of Hamilton, B.A. Johnson, the Godfather of CDN HipHop Maestro Fresh Wes who brought a giggle of kids on stage for his finale of Backbone Slide, the musty Americana of Okkervil River, Irish Mythen who never fails to make me cry, the Band of Horses spectacle, Sunday closers Old Crow Medicine Show, on and on as well as Hall of Fame inductee Bruce Cockburn, but it was another Bruce, the multi-instrumentalist Bruce McKinnon, that matters to us in Shwarock City and the reason I go to the festivals is to get eyes and ears on our kats and what they are all about so yes our Bruce was on site for several stints playing with Huntsville raised singer/songwriter James Gray, he has a lovely way about him on stage - joining both was the bassist John Sloan ex of the Doozies and a local session player most recently I believe with Darren Roy Clarke for his album release party. Clarke also has Kerri Ough of the Good Lovelies on his record and the Good Lovelies were at Mariposa for their own set and as part of the Bruce Cockburn tribute.

Tom Power of the CBC had the pleasure of introducing Bruce Cockburn on the Gordon Lighfoot Stage but as James Gray played the side stage directly before Cockburn’s set, Power also had the pleasure of introducing Gray, Sloan and McKinnon - nice one lads.

Gray had an early Sunday morning set and McKinnon closed out the festival on drums with the last band of the evening Doghouse Orchestra, who played the Pub Stage.

The highlight for what I will call the Shwarock crew was B.A.’s Saturday night closing set also at the Pub Stage. B.A. is Shwarock royalty although he is of the Hammer. Half the tent stood perplexed at the antics while the other half totally ate the Cheetos and rocked and rolled to the plinky Casio sounds of his Steeltown folk anthems. Yes he brought the sparklers, too many sweatshirts, the pithy patter, the leaps and crowd dives, even overcoming tech glitches, and finally disappearing, into a port-a-pottie I suspect, leaving even the sound guy and the host wondering what to do next. Welcome to BA Orillia!

AJ from Cuff the Duke is also in the Royal Castles and they also performed some bubble machine indie rockers which got the folks up and at them.

So that's our folks and our folks at the festival and of course all the random meeting of pals from Shwarock City in the passing and yes that's what we look after - the beginnings here in the Slowcity - someone else can go after the successful and get the all access, we are fine on the other side of the wire, with the folks!

We dig the efforts in trying, in starting, in rethinking, and in that light this past weekend was a beginning too for this festival which has been running for over sixty years , a new beginning with AD Spencer Spencer Shewen, who also runs the Elora Festival, and for his first year, well a top rate job bringing a wide interpretation of what Folk music is and a real reverence for the roots in not just singy-songy writerly types but the roots in ragtime, and blues and early field recordings and harmonies and yeah he put the people back in folk and randomly put the people back in my time there too. So cheers!

PS cheers to Sarah and Andy hope you made it back to Collingwood ok