‘An incredible sense of optimism’: Vancouver Folk Music Festival opens with eye toward 50th anniversary next year

A Saturday morning performance at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival is shown. (CTV News)

Three years after it nearly went away for good, the Vancouver Folk Music Festival opened its 49th edition Friday in Jericho Beach Park.

While acknowledging they’re not immune to the funding pressures facing large-scale events in B.C. and across the country, VFMF organizers remain positive about the future of their event.

“This is a precarious sector, but we have amazing support for the festival,” said Corbin Murdoch, executive director of the Vancouver Folk Music Festival Society, speaking to reporters on Saturday morning.

Murdoch touted support from “thousands of donors,” an “amazing” group of corporate sponsors and all three levels of government as reasons to believe the festival will keep going strong in its 50th year and beyond.

“This festival has happened for 49 years,” he said. “We’re entering into our 50th anniversary with an incredible sense of optimism. Over the decades, the festival has faced all kinds of different challenges, and this community has always rallied and risen to the occasion, and we’re going to celebrate that next year.”

Ticket sales and revenue are up “across the board,” Murdoch said, noting that 40 per cent of ticket sales are to people who have never attended the festival before.

“That’s really, really exciting to us,” he said.

This year’s festival features 35 artists from around the world against the park’s scenic backdrop of mountains, ocean and city skyline.

There’s also an artisan market, a community village and activities for kids. Attendees ages 12 and under get in free.

Organizers are expecting 20,000 people to turn out over the course of the three-day festival.

“Every year, the festival feels very much like a family reunion,” Murdoch said. “We love that, and we want to welcome new families into that fold.”

The 2026 Vancouver Folk Music Festival continues Sunday and tickets are available at the gate for anyone who didn’t book in advance, Murdoch said.