​“If this old guitar could talk… the stories it would tell.”

Folk music is about storytelling through music and words. It is about sharing an experience, not only from the storyteller to their audience but through the experience that the audience shares together.

That is why folk music festivals are such an important part of the genre and why we felt that, at this point in time more than any other, it was important to launch The Upper Canada FolkFest.

We have chosen the symbol of an old guitar and kitchen chair to represent the intimacy and roots of storytelling. This particular guitar, nearly 100 years old, has seen the world and wears the scars of generations of use and storytelling. While it can’t talk, it can certainly sing and like all of us, has a few more stories yet to tell.