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It has been announced that hip-hop superstars The Roots will perform at the 45th annual Calgary Folk Music Festival at Prince’s Island Park.
The Philadelphia band, which formed in the late 1980s, will close out the night on the main stage on Saturday, July 27. The Roots are among 72 acts set to play at the festival, which runs July 25-28 at Prince’s Island Park. The Roots are multiple Grammy winners and were the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
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Other headliners include Ottawa indie-folk singer-songwriter Leif Vollebekk, who will close out the main stage on Thursday night, July 25, alongside already-announced English songwriter Ben Howard.
Irish songwriter James Vincent McMorrow and Toronto folk act Wild Rivers will perform on the main stage on Friday, July 26, closing with veteran indie band The Cowboy Junkies.
On Saturday, The Roots will be joined by Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall and BCUC, a self-proclaimed “Afro-psychedelic band” from Soweto.
On Sunday, veteran funk and soul icon Booker T will perform his “Stax Revue” show alongside California’s Fantastic Negrito, who wowed audiences as the 2023 headliner.
The festival will also feature its usual array of multi-artist workshops and multi-stage concerts. Other artists announced for the bill include New York songwriter Allegra Krueger, multi-instrumentalist Benj Rowland, veteran American country-blues singer-songwriter Charlie Parr and Quebec’s Shauit, who blends traditional First Nations music with modern styles.
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World music will be well represented, as always, with North African blues musician Bab I’Bluz, West African voudoun group BIM, Tuareg group Etran de L’Air, Latin rockers Making Movies and Mexican traditional musicians The Mariachi Ghost.
Other highlights include British singer-songwriter Billie Marten, Toronto trio Elliott Brood, Mexican-American band Y La Bamba, American alternative folk rockers Deer Tick, Los Angeles folk-punk singer-songwriter Sunny War, the collective “panglobal” Umbrella of Prince Edward Island. and the American soul and blues singer Robert Finley, a veteran who, however, did not release his debut album, Age Do n’t Mean a Thing, until 2016.
Local acts on this year’s roster include Calgary’s Ginger Beef, Kue Varo & The Only Hopes, hip-hop artists Arlo Maverick and K-Riz, jazz rockers L’Omelette and Nehiyaw songwriter Wyatt C. Louis.
For the full schedule, visit calgaryfolkfest.com. Early bird weekend passes and single-day tickets are available starting at noon on April 30.
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