Group rallies to save the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society

A group calling itself Save the Vancouver Folk Fest is urging longtime festival goers, board members, staff, volunteers and artists who are on the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society board to vote against dissolution of the society at its Feb. 1 annual general meeting.

The acting Folk Music Festival Society board proposed the dissolution, citing inflation that made it too costly to both mount a 2023 event and continue operations.

In an email circulated Jan. 22, the Save the Vancouver Folk Fest challenges the ending of a 45-year-long operating history. The president of Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society, Mark Zueberbuhler, said he welcomes the community outreach.

“It’s an incredible response from the community, and we are all very touched by it, almost overwhelmed,” he said. “It’s quite incredible and demonstrates the passion out there for the event an organization. The board is aware of this and we are talking about it and will do what is best for the society.”

The letter notes urging all concerned to get the word out that the Feb. 1 vote to dissolve the non-profit society is not a done deal. “The Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society has been in much worse shape than it is now. It has survived through the efforts of the folks: you.”