Name: Angela Ibbott
Committee: CD Tent
Number of years volunteering: 2
Why do you volunteer for the Festival? What inspires you? Favourite memory?
I volunteer for the love of not only music, but the people. There’s never been a festival, to me, that has had a more friendly audience than VFMF. I get this incredible opportunity to communicate with fans of music like myself, and meet some truly incredible people. I have a couple of very vivid memories of the festival. My first is from the past year, in which I talked to an absolutely incredible woman who discussed with me about overcoming the pains of a residential school she had been placed in as a child, and how music and the lovely people and volunteers at the festival had really brought her into a community of people who understood her. I spend a lot of my time sitting and greeting people near the CD Tent when I’m not handling artist signings, and I get a great view of the festival grounds and main stage. The same woman had described to me how connected she felt to Shane Koyczan when she saw him perform, and with my eagle eyes, I spotted him getting coffee along the way. I pointed him out to her and suggested she go talk to him because she had missed his signing. She did, and came back crying. I was so emotionally overcome with that experience and I don’t think I’ll ever forget the contribution not only Shane was making, but the volunteers and audience at the festival, and how they were encouraging this woman to keep moving forward.
Besides my memories of the festival, I get truly inspired every time I’m there. I’m a musician myself and play bass for a local band, and getting the opportunity to meet all of these worldwide talents is very cool! I’ve met some of my favourite folk musicians and even networked with managers cause of the festival. I once even heard of a story about a volunteer meeting a band at VFMF, and then eventually touring as a member because they liked him so much.
To conclude, I volunteer for the wonderful experiences, and the people. I have such a blast and look forward to Folk Fest every year. I forgo even big local festivals such as Pemberton and Squamish for Folk Fest, because I’ve had way more fun during those three days at Jericho Beach. I’ve never been more proud of anything local to Vancouver than the almost entirely volunteer run, green, and absolutely beautiful Vancouver Folk Music Festival. I can’t say enough positive things about it.