The final push is on to see who will take the prized for Searchlight, Canada's Best Music Festival. To give you a sense of our ten finalist, we sent out questionaires to the remaining festivals. We'll post them as we receive them, so please check them out, and don't forget to VOTE!

How long has Shelter Valley Folk Festival been in operation?
We are celebrating our 7th year in 2010 on a local farm on the shores of Lake Ontario outside of Grafton.

What is the mission statement of your festival?
The Shelter Valley Folk Festival organization celebrates music, juried art, wellness, sustainable living and harvest food in the heart of Northumberland County through an annual Labour Day Weekend family festival, an Artists in the Schools Program, and a Community Concert Series.

What makes your festival site special?
Everything on the site is hand made - from wooden carts to carry our musician's instruments to the stage, to the booths in which we provide local foods to our audience. The barn on our host's property (The HenkelFarm) was re-built to become a wonderful stage. A natural amphitheatre on the sloping hill lets audiences enjoy not only a wonderful view of this lovely wooden stage, but also an extraordinary vista that takes in all lands below, including to Lake Ontario's shore. It is like sitting in the clouds, embraced by Northumberland's hills!

What is your favourite festival moment of the past?
In 2009 due to hydro issues in our community, complete power loss was experienced mid show on Saturday evening. With the will and strength of our volunteers (we have only one part time paid supporter!) we were able to have music return to our stage within 15 minutes. Through magical efforts, temporary power to the site was connected through generators in another 15 minutes. But really - the return of power was through a connection of passionate volunteers, our audience (who dragged generators from their trucks!) and a belief it could be done.

Name one artist that is playing this year?
We have not announced our performers but in 2009 they included David Myles to Garnet Rogers to Martyn Joseph to Po Girls to Steve Slade

Why should we vote for your festival?
The community over 7 years ago wanted to create an annual celebration for all that included music and arts in all its forms, including Juried Art, wellness, sustainability and harvest foods. Our community has literally built by hand all that we enjoy Labour Day Weekend and although created for our region - is proud to hear from across Canada, in the U.S. and even further - our reputation as a "lovely little Festival" continues to grow. We are a small but mighty community that would count "the best festival" accolade as one of our most extraordinary accommplishments we have enjoyed, and would certainly treasure.

posted by John Paolozzi on Mar 08, 2010