NEW book on the history of MARIPOSA

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The artistic director and vice-president of MARIPOSA since 2000, Michael Hill has written a book about MARIPOSA that is available to purchase in different formats.

He interviewed Gordon too!

PURCHASE AT:

https://www.dundurn.com/books/Mariposa-Folk-Festival PREVIEW IS AVAILABLE AT LINK..

A history of the Mariposa Folk Festival, from its humble roots in Orillia in 1961 to international acclaim and legendary status as a premier folk music gathering.

Mariposa began in the heyday of the early 60s “folk boom.” In its more than fifty-five years, it has seen many of the world’s greatest performers grace its stages: Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Jann Arden, and Serena Ryder.

The festival has long held a musical mirror to popular culture in Canada. It thrived during the folk boom years and the singer-songwriter era of the early 70s. Its popularity dipped during the rise of disco and punk as the 70s wore into the early 80s. And it nearly died due to lack of interest in the 90s — the days of grunge and new country, and the golden age of CD sales. Thanks to a recent wave of independent, home-grown music, Mariposa is having a resurgence in the early twenty-first century. Audiences have always come and gone, but the festival has stayed true to its mandate: to promote and preserve folk art in Canada through song, story, dance, and craft.

also available at:

https://www.chapters.indigo.ca/en-CA...20-%20mariposa

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https://www.simcoe.com/whatson-story...-of-folk-fest/

Orillia author dishes on Dylan/Lightfoot in history of folk fest
Movement to cancel festival in late 1980s

Mike Hill has enjoyed a front-row seat to the Mariposa Folk Festival’s long and winding story, both as audience member and artistic director.

Now, the Orillia author is dishing on the festival’s colourful past with a behind-the-scenes look in ‘The Mariposa Folk Festival: A History’.

“People in the music industry know about it, and certainly the people in Orillia know about it,” Hill told Simcoe.com. “But I thought, maybe there’s a broader audience that should know about one of our cultural icons.”

The book traces the festival from its humble beginnings in Orillia in 1961 to its banishment after rowdy crowds of drunken youth wrought havoc on the community in the third year.

The festival would drift from site to site for decades before returning in 2000, along the way generating more than its share of memorable moments.

Perhaps the most storied among them was Bob Dylan’s appearance at the 1972 event, held at Toronto Islands.

“They knew he was coming, but they made a decision that they weren’t going to let him play, no matter what,” Hill says. “They were afraid that if Dylan ever got up on stage that people would run from all over the park.”

The book is rich with stories rarely heard outside of the festival’s inner circle, including occasional political skirmishes inside the board and, at times, with the city.

More than that, there are telling and often funny anecdotes involving the stars that adoring audiences flock to hear.

There’s Randy Bachman, of Guess Who fame, encountering a slab of limestone near the backstage area and wryly remarking, ‘Oh, so this is where they buried Gordon Lightfoot’.”
Lightfoot is, of course, still with us, and makes numerous appearances between the pages.

Included is the now legendary sighting of a limo pulling up to the park’s entrance on an evening when Orillia’s hometown troubadour was performing.

Apparently dissuaded from entering by the line of vehicles exiting the site early due to a rainstorm, the limo retreated into the night. Hill remains convinced the hired car contained Dylan, who performed that evening at nearby Casino Rama.

“I had phoned Dylan’s agent (in advance) and said, ‘Bob’s going to be playing the casino the same weekend as Lightfoot is playing Mariposa, and I know they’re friends’,” he said.

Many a magical moment is recalled, including the brief reunion of Ian and Sylvia Tyson for the festival’s 50th anniversary, a performance that moved more than a few folkies to tears.

“It shows the power of the festival and the power of that kind of music to some people,” Hill added.

For all of the positive vibes, the festival has experienced its share of tumult, and Hill doesn’t shy from saying so.

In the late 1980s, he notes, a movement was afoot to end the festival amid waning interest.

“(Founder) Ruth Jones-McVeigh came all the way from Ottawa to this annual general meeting they had and she fought — figuratively speaking — to save it,” Hill says.

The Mariposa Folk Festival: A History is available through Manticore Books.

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http://www.orilliapacket.com/2017/05...-now-available

Mike Hill has been at every Mariposa Folk Festival since it returned to Orillia in 2000, first as a volunteer and more recently as its long-serving artistic director.

But his first Mariposa was 45 years ago, when the festival was housed on Toronto Island. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he was at one of the seminal moments in Canadian music history.

And initially, in that moment, he was none too happy about it.

“I was just a teenager who went to see Murray McLauchlan,” Hill recalled. “(He) said, ‘I’m giving up my set today.’ I was momentarily disappointed, but then he said, ‘My friend, Joni Mitchell, is here.’”

After four or five songs, Mitchell ceded the stage to another friend, much to the temporary chagrin of Hill. That mood changed when Jackson Browne took the stage. The next day, a similar occurrence happened when Neil Young took over Bruce Cockburn’s set.

Alongside Mitchell, Browne and Young as surprises that year were Gordon Lightfoot and Bob Dylan. Dylan, infamously, wasn’t allowed to perform by festival organizers.

Hill got to explore this history of the 1972 edition of Mariposa alongside five decades of festivals in a comprehensive new book, The Mariposa Folk Festival: A History.

Hill has been the festival’s “unofficial” historian for a few years now, putting together pieces on the storied history of Mariposa when the situation arose. About a year ago, Dundurn Press made it known it was interested in publishing a history on the festival, and Hill was quickly drafted into action, finishing the book in about five months.

The book is a quick journey through Mariposa’s first 56 years, from the festival’s beginnings in Orillia to its time wandering through southern and central Ontario, rarely making money, and outside of decade-long stretch on Centre Island, barely staying in one location for any great length of time.

“It’s a miracle,” Hill quipped, that Mariposa made it back to Orillia in 2000 and is as a revered event as it is today.

As the de facto historian, Hill had a better handle than most on just what should be explored in a history on the festival. But his research still led him down interesting paths he wasn’t aware of, when it came to the successes and near terminal failures of Mariposa.

“The shocking thing to me was that Estelle Klein, who was the big name – her name is synonymous with the festival – in the ’80s, she wanted to shut it down,” Hill explained. “They had an AGM; they wanted to vote on whether to collapse, to end the festival. That’s when Ruth McVeigh (festival co-founder) and several of the other people – one of them who is still involved, David Warren – sort of put up a big fight and then they rallied all kinds of support.”

But he also found constants between the years. No matter how much time had passed between the initial festivals and the current incarnations, regardless of whether the concerts were held at Tudhope Park, Ontario Place or Molson Park, several key things remained the same.

“When I looked at programs in the ’70s, and Molson Park in the ’80s, and then now, I find a lot of things are very similar,” Hill said. “We have several workshops stages, a folk play kids area, a beer tent; all these different things were started way back then and have carried on. It’s a successful formula.”

Since 2000, Hill has been part of that successful formula. He joked he started volunteering as a way to get a free ticket to Mariposa when it returned to Orillia for the first time since the 1960s. But that volunteering led to becoming artistic director and turns the final third of the book into somewhat of a memoir.

That was a struggle, he said, partially because he would feel somewhat pretentious writing about himself in the third person. The switch gives the reader a more inside view of the background workings of the folk festival, from the misadventures of some misplaced marijuana, to the antics – good and bad – of the musicians who populate the lineup.

“There was nothing really conscious,” Hill said of the story selections. “My wife has clipped anything from the festival over the last 18 years, since it’s been back in Orillia ... I just sort of went through them. We had them in chronological order and then certain things just popped out.”

One of those highlights is Lightfoot’s return to performing after a near-death health scare. Dylan finds his way back into Mariposa lore here as well, with rumours long-circulated he was on his way to share the stage with Lightfoot that weekend.

Hill shines some light on that legend and many others in The Mariposa Folk Festival: A History, available now online and wherever books are sold.

pbales@postmedia.com

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