Regina Folk Festival daytime numbers up, ticket sales down

The last chord has been strung at this year’s Regina Folk Festival in Victoria Park.

While the festival hasn’t released any exact numbers, artistic director Sandra Butel told 980 CJME that the event had “record-breaking” crowds of around 15,000 people each day for the free entertainment. On the flipside, she added that ticket sales for the evening acts were slightly down and averaged around 4,000 people per night.

This year, Butel said one of the many highlights was the round dance during Buffy Sainte-Marie’s festival-closing performance on the main stage.

“It was a lot of people coming together with strangers to join in a round dance in Victoria Park — it was just special,” she said.

Butel didn’t give any hints as to who could be headlining next year’s Folk Fest, but said they’re already starting to think about the festival’s 50th anniversary in 2019.